Self-Care Management of Patients with diabetes: nurses’ perspectives

Abstract

Purpose: To explore nurses’ experiences of providing education on self- care management to patients with diabetes. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological study using semi-structured interview on all nine certified diabetic nurse educators in the main hospital and health centres in Brunei. Prolonged engagement with participants and data, and member checking were employed to ensure thematic analysis was trustworthy. Results: Three main themes emerged; 1) Factors of effective teaching strategies that emphasizes on assessing patients’ knowledge and education level to provide individualised instructional plan, which need to follow latest ministerial guidelines and effective pedagogy; 2) Barriers to provide effective education including psychological, financial, and lack of familial support, 3) Overcoming barriers through parallel health education and counselling, referring to medical social worker and non-governmental organizations, and inclusion of family members and carers in plan of care. Conclusion: Diabetic nurse educator plays a crucial role to ensure patient with diabetes achieved competency and compliance with long term self-care management. Nurses’ need to ensure psychological preparedness and patient literacy assessment when designing individualised health education session. While identifying and addressing key barriers for each patient to ensure effectiveness of management plan and improve quality of life. More research are still needed to explore experiences and innovation solutions from nurses in different parts of the world to better inform policymakers and improve organisational and national guidelines for management of patients with diabetes.