Dialysis waiting rooms made into reading rooms

Dialysis waiting rooms made into reading rooms

Published: 10.08.08

Waiting rooms are notorious for their mundane reading materials.

Noting that bleakness when she accompanied her physician husband on rounds at a dialysis center in the Museum District, Nancy Etheridge saw an opportunity for a grassroots book campaign benefiting all of Renal Specialists of Houston’s locations.

For her prototype “lending library,” she e-mailed her friends, asking for donations of used books and was amazed at the response. Stacks upon stacks of books began to appear at her front door.

Fresenius Medical Care Museum District Dialysis installed new bookshelves to accommodate the collection of donated reading materials for patients, families, caregivers and staff to read, share or keep.

Now, Etheridge hopes to bring the same concept to more dialysis centers run by Renal Specialists of Houston. It’s one of the 10 largest nephrology practices in the country, with physicians at eight offices and 23 dialysis centers in the Houston area.

As with the prototype, the other centers also lack reading materials, she said. Three have already had mini-libraries completed.

Ethridge said she’s as gratified by reader response to the books as she is by the donors.

“Reading provides entertainment and enjoyment in a sometimes monotonous situation, since dialysis treatments are a long process,” she said. “The nurses have told me that people are happy not only to have books to select but to be able to take them home.”

Etheridge started the book drive as a one-woman effort. She didn’t want to make it a complicated process or deal with a committee.

“It started as such a small thing, but now I feel I am on a mission not only to collect books for our centers, but to promote the joy of reading,” she said.

However, once the lending libraries are stocked, her involvement ceases. For further information on where to take books, contact Etheridge at NDE3045@aol.com.

http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2008/10/16/river_oaks_examiner/news/ro_renal_libraries.txt