Paper
Monday, November 5, 2007
368
Professional Meetings Build Bridges between Diabetes Care Systems
Carina Sparud Lundin, RN, RNT, Ingbritt Öhrn, RN, PhD, and Ella Danielson, RN, PhD. Sahlgrenska Academy, Institute of Health and care Sciences, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden
| Learning Objective #1: to understand how different prerequisites influence the process of transferring adolescents with diabetes from paediatric to adult diabetes care. |
| Learning Objective #2: understand how professional meetings between different care systems are fundamental for continuity and integration of care. |
The health care system itself has been found to be an important barrier to successful transitions of adolescents with diabetes. Participant observations of pediatric and adult diabetes care settings (n=51) and interviews with nurses and physicians (n=10) were therefore accomplished in order to explore a) how care providers handle the transition process from paediatric to adult diabetes outpatient clinic and b) to describe their perception of adolescents’ needs during this process. Data was analyzed simultaneously with data collection, using a constant comparative method. Three phases of transition were identified and the first, preparation phase showed that preparing transition requires modified strategies. The transition phase implied transferring responsibility and changing care relations while the evaluation phase revealed that care providers are creating mutual understanding through appraisal. These phases were all implying that in order to enabling integration of two diabetes care systems, professional meetings are necessary. The way care providers construct meeting arenas strongly influence the possibility to bridge uncertainty, insufficient knowledge, routines and strategies. Moreover, the way participating clinics handle transition greatly influences the process. Professional meetings appeared to be of vital importance to enable the building of bridges between paediatric and adult diabetes care in this study.