Improving Knowledge in Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support via mHealth Among Nurses: A Quality Improvement Project

Type 2 diabetes represents a growing threat to public and population health. Diabetes self-management education and supports (DSMES) is an evidence-based intervention for improving glycemic control in patients with diabetes. Despite the utility of DSMES, it is often not used by providers. mHealth applications to support DSMES may enable providers to improve this element of care, having a systemic impact on the patient, population, and healthcare costs. To this end, a quality improvement project was developed and implemented in an acute care facility to increase nurse knowledge of mHealth with the idea that this education will increase nurse use of mHealth in the care of patients with diabetes. A total of 11 nurses working at the practice site were included in this quality improvement project. Results from the project indicate that mean knowledge scores compared from baseline to post-education increased, 6.55 (s.d. 1.22) and 13.8 (s.d. 2.49), respectively. A Mann-Whitney U-test was conducted to evaluate the statistical significance of the data with the results indicating P = 0.000. This demonstrates that the results were statistically significant and support current evidence regarding the efficacy of provider education for mHealth. Based on the current evidence and the results from this quality improvement project, provider education for using mHealth in DSMES should be strongly considered