Decreasing Acute Diabetes Complications Through Self-Management Education

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that affects millions of people in the United States. The purpose of this project was to develop a guideline to help clinical staff provide clear and concise diabetes self-management instructions to patients in a community setting. Orem\u27s self-care deficit theory (SCD) and health belief model (HBM) provided a platform to assess how patients\u27 self-care deficit contributes to illness and the effect of patients\u27 perception of illness. SCD theory and the HBM provided the framework for the development of the guideline to decrease diabetes acute complications through self-management education. The practice-focused question was whether the diabetes treatment guideline would decrease diabetes complication, improve the quality of care received by the diabetic patients, and if the facility would adopt the developed guideline. AGREE II Tool was used to assess the quality of the guideline and the staffs\u27 desire for the adoption of the guideline. Data were collected from questionnaires given to staff members at the practice site in 2 rounds. Six medical staff were asked to critique the initial guideline, and 5 medical professionals were asked to assess the final guideline. Most of the participants\u27 scores indicated strong agreement that full consideration was met. The score in all 6 AGREE II domains was above 90%, and 100% of the participants recommended the guideline to be adopted in the facility. Data analysis indicated the diabetes practice guideline is valid, will enhance the treatment of diabetes, and the practice site employees were eager to adopt the treatment guideline. Findings may be used to increase population health and reduce acute complications from diabetes mellitus