The Role of Primary Health Care Professionals

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide epidemic, especially in disadvantaged populations. Lack of economic resources is a clear constraint for improving kidney health in low-income countries and disadvantaged populations; therefore the employment of systematic strategies for prevention, screening, and treatment of CKD in the primary health-care setting would always be an opportunity to improve kidney health and to optimize resources in such limited environments. Under these circumstances, efforts should be focused on primary prevention and timely detection and management at the earliest CKD stages. This chapter describes the role of primary health-care professionals and the multidisciplinary approach in the prevention and management of kidney disease, focusing on patient education to increase empowerment and for the health-care team to improve clinical competence and employ a systematized attention model as the basis for prevention, and early diagnosis and treatment of CKD.