Intervention Programs to Curb Diabetes in the Community

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Intervention Programs to Curb Diabetes in the Community

Introduction

Diabetes is a medical condition that affects a good number of people in the society. There are two types of diabetes: type I and type II. Type I diabetes refers to the body inability to produce enough insulin while type II refer to the total failure by the body use insulin produced in the pancreatic cells. The two types of diabetes affect patients in the same way. Since the insulin is not utilized in the body, there is accumulation of glucose in the blood system leading to body complication. Diabetes is a global health concern as it is reported that world prevalence stands at 285 million, a figure may further increase to 439 million by 2030 (Meetoo, McAllister & West, 2011). Development of Type II diabetes begins with a precondition in that the body contains higher glucose level than it requires. The aforementioned statistics are worrying and as such, it is necessary to come up with intervention plans to help in the management of diabetes. The problem facing the global community in managing diabetes emanates from lack of adequate awareness. Therefore, as much as the nurses and the medical practitioners in general would want to attend to patients’ needs, there is laxity on the patients’ side. People shy away from knowing their blood sugar levels regardless of the health challenge that it poses. In order to keep the prevalence rate down, nurse must come out of the hospitals and sensitize the community on the dangers of high blood sugar in the body. Carrying out education campaigns on diabetes will play a significant role in community sensitization. It would be significant to carry out self-care education for the patient with diabetes and those who do not have any type of diabetes. Literacy assessment on any health issues according to Stiles (2011) should focus on “improving communication with all patients, and reducing the effects of low health literacy,” (p. 38). Communication to the community members should be devoid of medical jargons to enable the people to understand the message being driven.

Different people have different understanding abilities. In addition, there are those who prefer audio messages while others prefer visual media. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the nurses and other campaigners to identify the most popular medium to communicate to the people. This will boost individual understanding on the education concepts being covered in an education session. Nurses and other campaigners also need to adopt teach-back method to monitor if the audience really understands to topic under discussion. It can be done by inquiring the audience to put the information in their local language. The teach-back method will let the nurses to judge if all the main concepts have been well mastered. The teach-back method is a proved nursing intervention concept that yields positive results on improving the patients’ retention ability. Patients and the unaffected people should also take a lead role in fighting diabetes because as Zoffmann & Kirkevold (2005) posit, diabetes has been propagated by the inability of patients to cope up with the condition.

Diabetes intervention requires effective management of the self-care, which is a responsibility of the oncology nurses. It involves education on the significance of exercise, proper dieting, constant blood sugar examination, and other preventive measures that can be undertaken to keep prevalence levels to the lowest possible point. The role of oncology nurses is to “care for patients with chronic diseases, cancer, and diabetes, and educating and supporting patients with diabetes are critical,” (Leak, Davis & Houchin, 2008, p. 206). The nurses should be well versed with the recommended glucose level in the body and the overall care for a