Factors influencing nurses’ knowledge acquisition of diabetes care and its management: A qualitative study

Abstract

Aim: To identify and explore the factors nurses perceive as influencing their knowledge acquisition in relation to diabetes care and its management in Saudi Arabia. Background: Diabetes continues to pose major healthcare challenges despite advances in diabetes management. Nurses have a crucial role in diabetes care, but diabetes knowledge deficits deter effective collaboration with other healthcare providers in educating patients about diabetes self-management. Design: An exploratory descriptive qualitative design. Method: This qualitative study recruited 16 nurses from different specialty areas at a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. Data were obtained through semistructured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Three main themes emerged: (a) diabetes care and education, (b) barriers affecting nurses’ acquisition of diabetes knowledge and (c) factors to support nurses’ acquisition of diabetes knowledge. Conclusion: To pursue the goal of continued improvement in diabetes management in the challenging settings of acute care, there is a need to develop good practice in diabetes care among nursing professionals. Understanding of the complexity of factors that influence nurses’ knowledge acquisition in relation to diabetes care and its management provides clinical nurses and nursing managers with directions for future education, policy development and research. Relevance to clinical practice: A range of suggestions are proposed to support the development of nursing education and practice in diabetes, including organisational and individual-level strategies to offer and enable access to education programmes to maintain up-to-date knowledge and skills in diabetes and effective communication for optimal diabetes self-management.