Design: A pre-post comparison quantitative design was employed.

Population, Sample, Setting: A diabetes education centre in Hong Kong provided the setting for the study. All diabetic patients (N=50) referred by doctors to this centre within a one-year recruitment period provided the sampling frame. Ten patients refused participation, giving a 80% response rate.

Concept: Diabetes education is regarded as the cornerstone of diabetes care. Research demonstrates that patients make approximately 95% of clinical decision in their daily self-management, which requires complex knowledge and skills. It is agreed that diabetes education helps patients develop self-management competence and thereby better metabolic control. However, no published study has investigated the effect of a nurse-led education programme on Chinese patients’ metabolic outcomes.

Methods: Patients’ metabolic control was measured by taking blood for HbA1c before and after the education programme, which lasted for six months with a series of individual nurse-patient encounters.

Findings: The mean age of the sample was 58 (SD=13) years, 16 were male, 11 had secondary or above education, 26 had diabetes diagnosed over 10 years, and 4 were of type 1 diabetes. Thirteen and 12 patients were on oral hypoglycaemic agents (OHA) and insulin-therapy, respectively, while the rest (n=15) were on both. The mean pre and post programme HbA1c was 9.2% (SD=1.5) and 8% (SD=1.4), respectively (p<0.006).

Conclusions & Implications: The findings suggest that the nurse-led diabetes education programme was effective in helping patients achieve better metabolic control. The literature regards the process of diabetes education as a ‘black box’. Further study should investigate what education strategies were used in these education encounters and how patients experienced them. Findings from the proposed study could contribute to diabetes nursing practice.

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Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004