Volume 34 Number 1

Transplant nurses are vital members of the multi-disciplinary transplant team, providing high quality, evidence-based care and support for patients and their families along the whole spectrum of their transplant journey. As the pre-transplant, peri-transplant and post-transplant processes become more complex, the roles and scope of practice for nurses working in organ transplantation need to evolve to meet the challenges related to these changes, to ensure quality patient outcomes and patient expectations are still being met. It is really valuable to read about transplant nurses who have stepped outside their previously traditional transplant nursing roles to facilitate new health care delivery strategies to their transplant patients.

This edition of the TJA has a focus on Transplant Nursing Stewardship and how this facilitates optimal patient outcomes. The guest editorial has been written by Dr Kovi Levin, a specialist lung transplant physician, who has many years of experience managing a large cohort of lung transplant patients receiving either Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIg) or Extra Corporeal Photopheresis (ECP) as alternative or additional treatment modalities for prevention/treatment of rejection and infection. Dr Levin highlights the need for transplant nursing engagement as critical to the success of these less traditional treatments, particularly in supporting and encouraging patients to adhere to what are often challenging treatment schedules.

Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), which are standardised instruments that capture health status directly from patients about their symptoms, functional status and quality of life (QoL), are becoming an important stakeholder metric being utilised by health care providers to facilitate better individualised patient care. Kathe Holmes’ excellent article explains the potential benefit of including PROMS in paediatric liver transplant (PLT) recipient care with the aim of improving survivorship, noting that PROMS collected in paediatric patients with chronic diseases and other transplanted organs have positively impacted communication between PLT recipients and their healthcare teams. One key outcome from this article is that there is a key role for transplant nurses in supporting and adopting the use of PROMs, as well as evaluating the benefits of this new healthcare tool.

Fleur Tuthill’s insightful article explores a transplant nurses’ perspective on what motivates people to become a living kidney donor, some of the barriers potential living kidney donors face and she describes key international differences. This article also highlights the important role that the living donor transplant coordinator has in supporting the potential living kidney donor through the assessment process, particularly in providing a safe confidential environment for the potential donor to express their reasons for, and any concerns, regarding becoming a living kidney donor.

The final article written by Tomica Gnjec, a renal transplant coordinator in Canberra, discusses the important benefits of renal transplant patients having exercise physiotherapy under the instruction of an accredited exercise physiologist (AEP) both pre and post renal transplantation, using three different case studies to highlight improvements in both their physical status and overall patient well-being. In keeping with the theme of transplant nursing stewardship, this article also recommends that renal transplant nurses should be able to refer patients directly to their relevant AEP without always needing a medical referral, to better optimise patient care and experience.

The Queensland TNA branch have been very busy preparing an excellent program of speakers and topics for the 2025 conference with the theme of ‘Inspiration and Education Leads to Innovation’. It is being held in Brisbane from 24–25^th October. Registration for the conference is now open and abstract submission is also now available, with all the details included on a flyer in this edition. More details about the conference program and how to submit an abstract can be found on the TNA website www.transplantnurses.org.au.

This is my first edition as TJA editor, and with wonderful assistance from assistant editor Libby John (and the editorial committee), it has been really great to receive, review and now be able to publish some quality articles written by TNA members. I really encourage all of our TNA members and TJA readers to consider writing an article for publication in TJA. Our editorial team is always here to support you along your writing journey. Please let us know if you hear any great speakers/topics at conferences or your workplaces that would be potentially relevant for inclusion as a guest editorial or research article in the TJA.

Author(s)

Bronwyn Levvey