This presentation will begin by seeking to define ‘patient empowerment’.

The role of patient advocacy officers will be explained, showing how these posts cover the whole range of empowerment issues. This section of the presentation will cover also training available for patients, tools they can use to share decision making about their own medical condition and treatment, and how they can become involved in decisions related to renal service development and planning.

It will give ‘real life’ examples of how patients individually and collectively have become empowered, thus improving their individual circumstances, and those of renal patients more generally.

It is hoped that by the end of the presentation there will be a clearer understanding of how and why patients can and should become empowered, and the benefits this can bring to healthcare professionals as well as to patients themselves.