Effective Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Challenges and Approaches for Nursing Professionals

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
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NURSING
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a global health threat, it leads to increase in the
blood glucose level and thereby opening the gate-way of numerous physiological
complications. This non-communicable disease is regarded as one of the popular lifestyle
diseases, which is prevalent globally (World Health Organization, 2016). The common good
of this issue is, nursing professionals are unable to effectively manage diabetes. The main
challenges include lack of proper nursing knowledge in diabetes management. Thus the
following essay will highlight how approaches that must be use overcome the challenges
hampering the common good of diabetes management both globally and locally from the
perspective of nursing professionals.
According to the World Health Organization (2016), the global burden of Type 2
Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is increasing gradually. It is estimated that 422 million adults were
residing with diabetes in 2014 in comparison to 108 million adults in 1980. Thus, the global
prevalence (age-standardized) of diabetes has nearly doubled since 1980, rising from 4.7% to
8.5% among the population of adults. The prevalence of diabetes has increased in the low and
the middle income countries in comparison to the high-income countries. The reason behind
this global increase in the percentage of diabetes includes unhealthy lifestyles. However,
Hollis, Glaister and Anne Lapsley (2014) are of the opinion that there is a gap in nursing
knowledge about diabetes prognosis, which has created disequilibrium in maintenance of
common good in diabetes management. Lack of communication skills and inability to
tabulate the blood glucose level are other associated reasons behind increase in the
percentage of diabetes occurrence. Thus, it can be said that in the management of diabetes,
the concept of the “Common Good” is not projected. According to Donley et al. (2006), the
Roman Catholicism the principle of Common Good is defined as the total of the prevailing
social conditions, which enable people either as individual or in groups to attain their
fulfillment in an optimal manner. The nursing is projected as a profession for the promotion

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of the principle of the common good by increasing the health and well-being of the
community level population, irrespective of religion, cast, gender and age and their social
status in the community. Nurses are responsible for the critical aspects of the diabetes care.
The correlation study with 2250 registered nurses working under quaternary healthcare
services highlighted that there is poor knowledge of the nursing professionals in management
of diabetes among in-patients. Moreover, the nurses are not comfortable nor they are
adequately prepared to assist patients in the decision making process for the diabetes
management or deliver survival skill education for the patients admitted in hospitals with
diabetes (Modic et al., 2014). Thus, globally it can be said that Human Rights of the people
suffering from diabetes is bridged, as they are unable to receive proper care for the betterment
of their health and well-being.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) (2016), a series of cost-effective
interventions can help to improve effective management of Type 2 Diabetes. These
interventions include control and co-ordination of the blood glucose level, combination of
proper diet and physical activity along with taking proper medication to control blood
pressure and high level of blood cholesterol in order to reduce the cardiovascular threats of
this non-communicable disease. Other approaches include regular screening in order to detect
the macro and microvascular complications and diabetes like screening of eyes, kidneys and
feet (Young et al., 2014). Thus for the promotion of the cost-effective management of
diabetes, the nursing professionals are required to be trained about the diet plan and physical
activity requirement of diabetes. According to the Nursing and the Midwifery Board of
Australia (NMBA) standards, continuous professional development is an important aspect of
nursing. Training for the diabetic nurses must also be done in effective communication skills
so that they can communicate and educate the service users for diabetes self-management and
help them to take part in the effective decision making for the management of diabetes. In the