Being Facilitators in a Challenging Context-school Personnel's Experiences of Caring for Youth with Diabetes Type 1

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe school personnel's experiences of caring for youth with diabetes type 1. Design and Methods: A qualitative design was chosen for this study. Data were collected with individual interviews that were subjected to inductive qualitative content analysis. The sample consisted of 24 school personnel (teachers, principals and school nurses) from Swedish schools. All had experience with youth aged 6 to 18 years old with diabetes type 1. Results: School personnel experienced caring for youth with diabetes type 1 as “Being facilitators in a challenging context” and described establishing trusting relationships, finding strategies to support self-care, feeling uncertain and incapable in need of education, and dealing with unclear responsibility. Conclusions: School personnel (teachers, principals and school nurses) are key professionals supporting youth with diabetes type 1 and self-care in school. Lack of education and unclear responsibility created feelings of uncertainty and insecurity for school personnel and a need for mandatory education of school personnel regarding T1DM and self-care, including legislation was identified. Implications: Mandatory education should be provided for all school personnel regarding diabetes type 1, self-care and current legislation. A liason position in form of a nurse specialist should manage the education.