The Impact of Self-Management in the Control and Management of Diabetes - Essay Example

The impact of self-management in the control and management of diabetes The self-management of this disease has been considered one of the priorities in the management of diabetes because tight glycaemic control helps prevent any long-term complications. Self-management also promotes patient education and empowerment, thereby, helping the patient assume a more active role in the patient’s care. This paper shall now consider the impact of self-management in the control and management of diabetes. It shall consider the theme in nursing management which declares that: for individuals with diabetes, intervention by nurses which promotes the individual’s active participation in self-care is a key element for helping them to achieve optimal outcomes. This paper seeks to guide nurses on how they can improve diabetes management and what their role in self-management of diabetes is. Self-management of blood glucose levels is the most pro-active means of managing diabetes (Meetoo, McAllister, and West, 2011). The management of blood glucose levels involves the monitoring of blood glucose levels. The blood glucose strips can be used in order to monitor blood glucose and reduce the occurrence of complications. All in all, the glucose meters would generally serve as indicators for glucose levels allowing for the early management of high or low levels of blood glucose (Meetoo, et.al., 2011). Self-monitoring blood glucose helps control diabetes by assisting in the development of a blood glucose profile which can then help health professionals in planning treatment for individual diabetic patients (Benjamin, 2002). It also provides diabetics and their family choices in the management of the patient, including diet and medical management. Self-monitoring helps improve the patient’s ability to recognize signs and symptoms of increased or decreased blood glucose levels. In effect, self-monitoring blood glucose assists in enriching the patient’s knowledge; it also empowers the patient’s lifestyle and pharmacological choices in blood glucose control (Benjamin, 2002). The role of the nurse in the patient’s self-monitoring of blood glucose is to educate the patient about the self-monitoring process. The nurse can teach the patient how to use the glucometer, how to use the glucose strips, and measure his actual blood glucose levels. The nurse can teach the patient what would be high readings and what would be low readings and what the patient should do when such levels are reached (Meetoo, McAllister and West, 2011, p. 924). The nurse can teach the patient that in using a glucose meter by Abbot, levels which read at 16.7 mmol/litre and above is high and that a doctor must immediately be consulted (Meetoo, et.al., 2011, p. 924). The nurses must also teach the patient that these high levels mean that they are developing ketones which are harmful to them (Meetoo, et.al., 2011, p. 924). Depending on the company making the glucometer, the nurse can teach the patient how to use the glucometer. The nurse can also teach the patient how to adjust their insulin in relation to their blood glucose results (Meetoo, et.al., 2011, p. 924). Leak, et.al., (2008, p. 207) also discuss that nurses with diabetic patients must be involved in patient education, and in the establishment of online and computer-supported tools; they must also provide updates to medical staff on current options in diabetes control, and they must also be involved in spreading information about diabetes control in publications and other academic presentations. Changes in the diet are essential for patients and a major part of diabetes self-management. The American Diabetes Association recommends that 60-70% total calories in a diabetes patient’s diet must come from carbohydrates and monounsaturated fat (Fowler, 2007). The use of sweeteners is also a major concern for diabetic patients. The role of the nurse in controlling patient glucose levels is to instruct the patient on the appropriate amount, frequency as well as type of foods to be taken. It is also important for the patient to be instructed that changing one’s diet without the necessary adjustments in medications may also cause hypoglycemia (Fowler, 2007). The patient therefore needs to understand how the disease process works. In relation to exercise, it is the role of the nurse to ask their patients about their exercise practices, mostly on whether or not they initially did some stretching first, whether they did regular walking, swimming or cycling (Atak, Gurkan, and Kose, 2008, p. 71). It is also important for nurses to teach their clients to carry sugar cubes with them all the time in order to manage hypoglycaemia. The nurses also need to teach their patients the importance of regularly weighing themselves in order to ensure weight monitor any increase and decrease which may affect their health (Atak, et.al., 2008, p. 71). Protein in the diet of the diabetic must also be understood by the patient because the protein degradation in these patients seems to increase hyperglycemia (Fowler, 2007). The protein diet for these patients must therefore also be regulated, and the patient must know how to regulate such levels. The role of the nurse is once again to educate the patient on the recommended protein allowance in the diet (Funnell and Weiss, 2008). The patient must also understand that having a high protein diet may increase blood glucose levels. The nurse also needs to teach the patient that there is a relationship between high blood glucose and retinopathy and that important eye checks at least every six months are needed in order to prevent the disease and ensure early management of retinopathy (Atak, et.al., 2008, p. 72). During exercises activities, the nurse also needs to instruct the patient the importance of checking the foot every day and after each and every exercise in order to ensure that there are no injuries present (Atak, et.al., 2008, p. 72). Self-management helps the patient achieve lower blood sugar levels. Self-management helps empower the patient and assists the patient in the effective management of the disease (Funnell and Anderson, 2004, p. 75). Self-care is about being able to care for oneself and it is also about being able to perform the activities which are needed in order to achieve strong health (Richard, 2011, p. 256). It also helps the patients make decisions about their care, gaining clarity in their goals and motivations. Patient education is also crucial in establishing treatment options as well as strategies on behavior change (George and Thomas, 2010). Once the patient is better informed about the disease, a greater participation in diabetes management can be ensured. Moreover, with self-management also come early management and the prevention of disease complications and decrease rates of hospitalization (George and Thomas, 2010). Patient empowerment is based on a patient-centred collaboration which is meant to support the basic realities of diabetes care (Funnell and Weiss, 2007, p. 75). It is considered to be a means for patients to discover and develop their ability to be responsible for their own life and health. It has already been generally accepted that patients are the experts on their own lives and knowing how to treat an illness does not necessarily mean that one knows the effects of the illness on a person’s life (Funnell and Weiss, 2007, p. 75). In effect, patients are the main decision-makings in their self-management of their diabetes. In admitting the importance of self-management, health professionals are required to carry out their practice in ways which would be consistent with self-management. Various programs have already been developed in order to assist these professionals in ensuring patient self-management. These programs include training in empower-based strategies, including active-listening and goal-setting (Funnell and Weiss, 2007, p. 76). Before strategies for self-empowerment of patients, it is important for the nurses themselves to understand that empowerment must be an inherent part of diabetes patient education. It is therefore important for diabetics to be assisted in understanding from the very beginning that only they can effectively manage their illness (Funnell and Weiss, 2007, p. 76). This applies during their intake of prescribed medications, in their use of meal plans, and in participating in exercises. Working with the patient in establishing a plan of self-management is based on the idea that any plan may not work if the patient would not be willing to accept what would be demanded of him and what the program would require of him. Based on the above discussion, diabetes self-management is one of the most effective and empowering means of managing this disease. Self-monitoring blood glucose levels are effective ways of understanding the changes which occur in one’s body after every meal or activity. Such understanding would therefore allow the patient to be more vigilant about this health. The role of the nurse in self-management is to ensure that the patient has the right information about the disease and about the changes the patient can make in order to manage the disease. The role of the nurse is therefore to allow the patient to make the major decisions and the major interventions to manage the disease. References Atak, N., Gurkan, T. & Kose, K. 2008. The effect of education on knowledge, self management behaviours and self efficacy of patients with type 2 diabetes, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26 (2), pp. 66-74 Benjamin, E. 2002. Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose: The Basics, Clinical Diabetes, 20(1), pp. 45-47 Fowler, M. 2007. Diabetes Treatment, Part 1: Diet and Exercise, Clinical Diabetes, 25(3), pp. 105-109 Funnell, M. & Weiss, M. 2008. Patient empowerment: the LIFE approach, European Diabetes Nursing, Summer, 5(2), pp. 75- 78. George, S. & Thomas, S. 2010. Lived experience of diabetes among older, rural people, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(5), pp. 1092-1100. Leak, A. Davis, E., Houchin, L., Mabrey, M. 2008. Diabetes Management and Self-Care Education for Hospitalized Patients With Cancer, Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 13(2), pp. 205-210 Meetoo, D., McAllister, G. & West, A. 2011. Assessing glycaemic control; self-monitoring of blood glucose, British Journal of Nursing, 20(15). Richard, A. & Shea, K. 2011. Delineation of Self-Care and Associated Concepts, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 43 (3), pp. 255-64. Read More