Date of Award

Winter 2023

Project Type

Thesis

College or School

CHHS

Department

Nursing

Departments (Collect)

Nursing

Program or Major

Direct Entry Master's in Nursing

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Pamela Kallmerten

Second Advisor

Elizabeth Evans

Abstract

Background: Type 2 Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires a holistic approach, an in-depth understanding of self-care, education comprehension, and an effective relationship between healthcare professionals and the individual patient (Saeed et al., 2018). Due to a variety of factors such as increased nurse-to-patient ratios, inconsistent education methods, and limited confidence levels among registered nurses, important treatment measures and discussion of one’s T2DM diagnoses are often not addressed. Initiatives to improve education methods and nursing confidence levels will create more effective treatment measures and discharge education. Local Problem: Registered nurses spend minimal time educating patients on the severity of their disease and how to prevent further complications. A point-of-care education model was utilized to understand nursing barriers that prevent them from offering optimal T2DM education. The desired outcome of this intervention was to have registered nurses incorporate concrete diabetic education into individual patient care.

Methods: The project used a plan-do-study-act (PDSA) strategy to gather information relating to post-surgical management of T2DM. A seven-question survey generated data on the top reasons why education was not initiated among patients.

Intervention: Following data collection, a point-of-care discussion model was utilized so that nurses could privately discuss personal barriers to patient education. Qualitative data was shared which emphasized areas that nurses can improve upon and implement into daily education methods. The goal was to increase nursing competency levels during routine patient care and upon discharge.

Results: Data showed that 72% of registered nurses said they were not comfortable talking about self-care interventions with patients diagnosed with T2DM.

Conclusion: Further initiatives are needed to implement additional education for patients diagnosed with T2DM. Interdisciplinary collaboration is an important factor in increasing educational resources and enhancing nursing competence.

Key Words: Health literacy, nursing competency, T2DM comorbidities, quality improvement, self-care measures, point-of-care education.

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