Fifteen years of providing high quality PD education

2025 marked the 15^th year of PD Academy and created another 60 PD advocates
PD Academy was born out of the need for greater education of nephrologists in PD and 15 years later it goes from strength to strength. 2026 will see the launch of several initiatives specifically for PD Academy Alumni, so if you’ve been to PD Academy since COVID we want to hear from you! Please register your name and interest in being contacted and we will be in touch with a range of activities designed to provide further education in PD, build a community of PD advocates and provide opportunities to learn and share with your peers. PD Academy 25 was a huge success with almost 60 participants across the two days, but what difference did it make to their levels of knowledge, their attitude to PD and would they recommend PD Academy to their colleagues? To find out, we asked them, and the results might surprise you.

The participants this year were a mix of advanced trainees (73%), and either renal nurses or nurse practitioners, from across Australia and New Zealand, with most coming from NSW (17). What might surprise you is that not all participants rated PD as a good or excellent therapy (80%) before PD Academy. This may reflect the lack of knowledge in PD before the training as 20% indicated that they were “not confident” prior to the training. After the training, there was a clear shift in this question with no one ticking the “not confident” box and all ticking either “above average” or “well above average” confidence in their knowledge. This increase in knowledge also translated into a change in opinion on PD and reflected the level of confidence in prescribing PD with all respondents indicating either average, above average or high confidence. With newfound knowledge, a shift in interest in PD as a specialty with all respondents indicating a high level of interest in PD as a specialty.

Importantly, as we start planning for PD Academy 2026, mark your diaries for 13^th-14^th June in Melbourne - all respondents would recommend PD Academy to their colleagues. So, if you are thinking about coming to PD Academy next year, talk to the people that went this year to find out what it can do for you.