Patient Education in Diabetes Care - Term Paper Example

As previously mentioned, type II diabetes is on the rise in industrialized countries and therefore its management poses a significant problem to clinicians. As the disorder can be self-managed in a majority of cases, it can be useful to educate patients about the best way to approach their own health (Esden & Nichols, 2013). However, many patients may lack the knowledge or the expertise to really understand their disease and their health, meaning that many nurses feel that education could really be beneficial to diabetes patients managing their own care.

The purpose of this study was to give sessions to eight diabetes patients who were willing to participate in diabetes in the hope that this would make them feel more in control of their outcomes and overall health. The research study gathered eight patients with informed consent for three group sessions about various topics concerning diabetes and health (Esden & Nichols, 2013). These were held monthly. The first and the last session were slightly longer as these had pre- and post-intervention tests to measure the patient’s knowledge about diabetes to see if the intervention was useful to them (Esden & Nichols, 2013).

Additionally, several health measurements were taken (height, weight, blood pressure). The three assessment measures used were the Brief Diabetes Knowledge Test, the Diabetes Empowerment Scale, and the Diabetes Care Profile (Esden & Nichols, 2013). This type of method is good because it covers how the patients improved in their knowledge of diabetes over the time period, and the three scales used are clinically approved and recognized in the community. Results were analyzed using SPSS, another recognized tool, adding support to the results.

Overall, all the participants showed a significant improvement on all three scales (Esden & Nichols, 2013). This suggests that these sessions could be useful in improving the knowledge of those with diabetes, which previous studies have shown to improve outcomes. This means that this type of session could have a huge impact on nursing practice if instated correctly.