Abstract: Objective To explore the perspectives of patients, healthcare practitioners and hospital administrators on the core competency, cultivation and evaluation of hemodialysis expert patients in China. Methods Purposive sampling was used to select 14 hemodialysis patients with disease management experience, 5 hemodialysis nurse specialists, 3 hemodialysis physicians, and 3 nursing administrators in 3 tertiary grade-A hospitals between November 2022 and February 2023. With phenomenological research method in qualitative research, one-to-one semi-structured interviews were conducted. The Colaizzi 7-step analysis was used to analyze the data and refine themes. Results Four themes and twelve sub-themes were extracted:(1) Influencing factors of hemodialysis patients' willingness to participate in expert patient planning (positive factors and negative factors);(2) role orientation and core competence of hemodialysis expert patients (role orientation, self-management ability, health information literacy, joint decision-making ability, communication and coordination ability, and education and guidance ability); (3) professional training and evaluation (eligibility requirements, training contents and forms, and evaluation methods); (4) a complete support network for the cultivation of hemodialysis expert patients. Conclusion It is recommended to establish a complete and sustainable expert patient cultivation system and support system. It is proposed to empower hemodialysis patients to enhance their proactive health awareness and ability, and strengthen their willingness to participate in expert patient programs. Professional training and assessment evaluation should be conducted for hemodialysis expert patients, with emphasis on and reinforcement of cultivating several important core capabilities of self-management ability, health literacy, shared decision-making ability, communication and coordination ability, and educational guidance ability.

Key words: hemodialysis, expert patient, core competence, qualitative research