The Role of Diabetes Educators in Promoting Diabetes-based Knowledge on Insulin Pump Therapy to School Nurses and Physicians

Zahra Rahme, Fahad Aljaser, Nehad Taha, Nashwa Othman, Naglaa Mesbah*, Maisa Kamkar*

Education & Training, Medicsal Sector, Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait

Pediatric Unit, Amiri Hospital, Ministry of Health, Kuwait

Research Department, Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait

*Corresponding author: Maisa Mahmoud Kamkar, PhD, Research Department, Dasman Diabetes Institute, P.O. Box 1180, Dasman 15462, Kuwait. Telephone: +965-22242999-3319, Emails: maisa.mahmoud@dasmaninstitute.org or maisa.mkamkar@gmail.com 

Citation: Maisa Mahmoud Kamkar (2020) The Role of Diabetes Educators in Promoting Diabetes-based Knowledge on Insulin Pump Therapy to School Nurses and Physicians. Sci World J Pediatr, 1(1);1-6

Copyright: © 2020, Maisa Mahmoud Kamkar, This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

ABSTRACT

A total of 137 school healthcare professionals, 3 diabetes educators provided basic pump education and training on diabetes complications management specifically hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia and ketosis. The program was followed by hands-on workshop training on insulin pumps. Pre- and post-knowledge -assessment about insulin pump therapy basic management was performed using a 10-item knowledge questionnaire. Additionally, pre- and post-confidence level were assessed with a 9-item questionnaire using Likerts scale. Results: 62 school nurses mean age 41.5 ± 11.7, with school experience 8.8 ± 9.1y and 75 school physicians, mean age 36.25 ± 6.2, with school experience 3.4 ± 1.5y; attended the program. Pre- and post-knowledge assessment and confidence level scores were compared using Pearsons correlations. Significant improvement was found for both knowledge (school physicians, r=0.007 and nurses r=0.01) and confidence (school physicians, p-value=0.047 and school nurses, p-value=0.018). Discussion: Pre-assessment showed the lack of knowledge and confidence of school healthcare professionals about insulin pump therapy. Significant improvement in knowledge and confidence in caring for T1D students on insulin pump therapy resulted from the delivery of this workshop, which confirmed the effective role of diabetes educators. Conclusion: This is the first nationwide educational program conducted at Kuwait in private schools in 2018, the positive impact of the program will be followed up for implementation at governmental schools as well.

KEYWORDS: Diabetes Management, Diabetes Educators, Insulin Pump, Type 1 Diabetes

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