A Diabetes Educational Intervention to Improve Self-Management (A Quality Improvement Project)

Purpose: This DNP quality improvement project aimed to assess the feasibility and usability of educational videos to improve diabetic patients' knowledge of diabetes self-management.Background: Diabetes prevalence is growing and accounts for 20% of chronic diseases in the US, with 34.2 million people (10.5% of the population) diagnosed in 2018. Severe comorbidities are associated with inadequate management of diabetes, prompting a focus on diabetes self-management education. Diabetes self-management education benefits non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients by lowering hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels up to 0.5%-2%. Methods: The Health Behavior Model helped develop the education and motivate patients to change to benefit their health. The Model for Improvement helped guide the project design, set goals, identify accomplishments, measure improvements, and select the change that resulted in improvement. A pretest/post-test quantitative design was used with an evidence-based diabetes self-management educational intervention. The project measured knowledge changes from baseline on diet, confidence, and intention to change. The post-test measured the participant's understanding and the effectiveness of the intervention. Results: Six participants completed both the pretest and the post-test. Demographic data demonstrated the average age of the patients was 57.8 years (range 56-65, SD= 1.5), with 17% male and 83% female. 83% (SD=0.37) of participants reported they never received any diabetes education. The Wilcoxon-signed rank test with a p-value of 0.05 for statistical significance was used to measure the change in knowledge and confidence of the following: I feel fearful about my future health, I know what healthy carbohydrates are, Fresh fish are a great way to incorporate protein into my diet, I feel confident I can manage my diabetes through diet, and Proteins affect my blood sugar minimally. Comparing the change in the questions mentioned above indicated a statistically significant difference with a p-value = 0.00902 Conclusions: APRNs can facilitate patient education to support preventative medicine rather than reactive medicine. Results from this project indicate that this educational intervention can increase knowledge and self-efficacy for diabetes self-management. This project can be utilized to benefit the health and well-being of patients, increase best practices, and help promote patient autonomy and self-efficacy