Teaching Patients How to Manage Diabetic Complications

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Teaching Patients How to Manage Diabetic Complications

Introduction

It is believed that half of all diabetic patients in the United States have poorly controlled blood sugars, putting them at greater risk for experiencing complications such as kidney or eye disease (Jolving, 2011). Through research, we now understand that poorly controlled patients can understand how to manage their disease through extensive training. Weinger and associates randomized 222 diabetic patients that had poor management skills into two groups. One group had an extensive educational program of ten hours while the other group had less instruction. After three months the, HbA1C less dropped by 0.8 percent (Jolving, 2011). So how do we teach patients to manage their diabetes?

Diabetic Education

I would start out by telling the patient that diabetes is serious chronic metabolic condition that has to pathways. For type 1 diabetes, it is an autoimmune disorder that destroys the pancreatic beta cells. These cells are necessary to produce insulin to sustain life (Leak, Davis, Houchin, & Mabry (2009). In DM2, ...

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