K B Mazzuca | PubMed Health

PubMed1997

Demonstrating the added value of community health nursing for clients with insulin-dependent diabetes.

The importance of demonstrating that nursing care adds value to client outcomes is discussed broadly as well as within the dimensions of a community health nursing outcomes study. The study examined the effect of a community health nursing intervention on the health behaviors and health status of adults with insulin-treated diabetes as measured by client outcomes using a two-group repeated measures experimental design. The findings indicate that the community health nursing intervention significantly enhanced the self-reported self-care behaviors of blood glucose testing, complication management, nutrition regimen adherence, and reporting foot change in the experimental group. No differences were found between the groups in outcomes for dietary adherence, foot care, blood glucose levels and overall diabetes knowledge, metabolic control, or functional health status. Challenges for community health nurse researchers engaging in client outcome studies are delineated and discussed.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A computerized diabetes education module for documenting patient outcomes.

In this article, the authors describe the development, use, and evaluation of a computerized module that provides for uniform documentation of patient education and allows for measurement of specific educational outcomes. Within the first year of implementation, the diabetes education module was used in an outpatient clinic for one third of the patients with diabetes. Major content areas documented were blood glucose monitoring, nutrition, hypoglycemia, and foot care. Users indicated that the diabetes education module greatly improved their ability to review goals previously addressed and to identify unmet goals. The diabetes education module offers easy and quick access to critical teaching areas, specific objectives for each content area, and a method for documenting measurable outcomes for the individual patient.

Computer Systems↗