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A nurse-led clinic focusing on education and self-care for patients with advanced renal failure was introduced in a renal outpatient clinic in Sweden. The purpose was to enhance patients’ disease-related knowledge, involvement, and self-care ability. This article reports the results of a study comparing patient outcomes with the nurse-led clinic to the previous model of care.  The hypothesis was that the nurse-led clinic would increase medical control and self-care outcomes. The participants in the nurse-led clinic chose and started dialysis in a self-care alternative and also had a functioning, permanent dialysis access to a greater extent than the patients in the comparison group. Those choosing home-hemodialysis rated their self-care ability higher. The participants rated self-care and effects of treatment options on family and everyday life as the most important disease-related areas of knowledge.

Agneta A. Pagels, M.Soc.Sc. RN, is employed in the Department of Nephrology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

Marie Wång, RN, is a Staff Nurse, the Department of Nephrology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

Yvonne Wengström, OCN, PhD, is employed in the Department of Neurobiology, Care Science and Society, Division of Nursing, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.