According to the National Kidney Foundation, 10 percent of the population worldwide is affected by chronic kidney disease. One health professional who is working hard to support and treat patients with kidney diagnoses is IHP alumna Briana Yu, a transplant nephrology physician assistant at Lahey Hospital.
Take a few minutes to read about Yu’s path to Lahey’s Nephrology Department, why she feels interprofessional collaboration is important, and her advice for health professionals interested in this specialty.
Tell us a little bit about your current role.
I’m the transplant nephrology physician assistant at Lahey Hospital. I work alongside two transplant nephrologists taking care of patients before and after they receive a kidney transplant. We provide an assessment of their candidacy for kidney transplant, their new kidney function, any dialysis needs, immunosuppressant management, and much more. I’m on a consultant team, so we also get consulted about mostly liver transplant patients who have an acute kidney injury, which we help manage.
What skills or knowledge gained during the MPAS program have you found most valuable in your work?
The learning in the MPAS program is team-based, which I found beneficial given a large portion of my job requires interaction and collaboration with many specialties. I also found it helpful that our lecturers were practicing clinicians, which provided direct insight into their daily work lives.
Why did you choose to focus on transplant nephrology; or, if this specialty found you, what motivates you to work with this population?
This specialty found me! It’s very humbling to be part of a team that provides an opportunity to improve someone’s quality of life—a life potentially without dialysis. After a kidney transplant, the patients have a sense of immense gratitude and protection of their new kidney that I find inspiring and heart-warming.
What is one key aspect of your discipline that would be helpful for other clinicians/educators/researchers to know when it comes to caring for patients with kidney diagnoses?
Not all kidney transplants are the same! Kidney transplant recipients can be very complex and therefore should be managed on a case-by-case basis. Their immunosuppressive state can also mask underlying diseases and infections.
What is one interprofessional collaboration or approach that has significantly impacted the care of patients with kidney diagnoses in your experience?
Collaboration is essential to this job! I’m constantly in communication with my attendings; the primary teams such as surgery, medicine, and hepatology; pharmacy; dieticians; social work; nurses, from inpatient floor to coordinators, and dialysis to case management; and many more teams. Being kind to everyone—we have one greater goal: to care for our patients. I also have the mindset that there’s always something to learn from each person.
What advice might you give an IHP alum who is considering moving into this specialty?
I found it helpful working in a broad specialty right out of PA school before narrowing down to transplant nephrology. Practicing in general surgery as I rotated through trauma, bariatric/minimally invasive, colorectal, vascular, and surgical oncology teams for a few years gave me the ability to manage all systems of the body. While my focus now is the renal system, it’s useful having this background/skill set. I also think it’s beneficial being on a primary service before jumping into a consultant role, just so you know the daily ins and outs of caring for someone on the inpatient side.