Essay on Nursing Challenges and Solutions for Diabetes Management

This essay addresses the global health threat of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and the challenges nursing professionals face in its effective management. It highlights the increasing prevalence of diabetes, the lack of nursing knowledge in diabetes prognosis, and the impact on the 'Common Good'. The essay emphasizes the need for improved nursing training, focusing on communication, blood glucose monitoring, and early complication detection. It advocates for on-job training, the use of tools and eLearning modules, and the importance of nurses as patient advocates to promote informed decision-making and self-management. The essay concludes that by optimally training and educating nursing professionals, the global threat of diabetes can be reduced while upholding human rights and the concept of solidarity, ultimately improving patient outcomes and contributing to the 'Common Good'.

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
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

2
NURSING
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

3
NURSING
domain of nursing skills, training must be given for the effective monitoring of the blood
glucose level and detecting the early signs and symptoms of macro/microvascular
complications of diabetes (Young et al., 2014).
Nurses across the global practice settings of the diabetes management, are the
principal provides of the diabetes clinical care and education and thus it is imperative that the
nurses are trained adequately in order to ensure best possible outcomes. The training of the
nurses must be framed as on-job training. Under on-job training the nursing educators and the
physicians will educate the nurses about the disease prognosis and lifestyle requirement of
T2DM. This will be followed by hands on training in order to refine skills for diabetic
management like checking the blood glucose level and subcutaneous insulin administration.
This professional development of the nurses will help to promote the principal of “common
good” in diabetic management (Munshi et al., 2016). Effective nursing training plan for the
professional development in diabetes management can be under with the help of tools and
eLearning modules of Diabetes Australia (2019).
According to the NMBA (2019), advocacy is the pillar of nursing. It is the duty of the
nurses to instinctively advocate their patients both under in-patients and out-patients
(community level) settings. Advocacy helps in advancing the process of patient’s care.
Providing advocacy to patients helps them to participate in the effective decision making
process in care plan. According to the professional code of conduct of NMBA (2019), it is the
duty of the nurses to support health and well-being of the patients by helping them to take
part in the effective decision making process. DeNisco and Barker (2013) are of the opinion
that according to the Human Rights and the ethical principle of autonomy as proposed by
NMBA, it is the right of the people receiving care to give consent before the onset of the
treatment. Thus nursing education will help to increase the provision of advocacy which in

4
NURSING
turn will help to uplift the concept of informed decision making of the service users and
thereby preserving the Human Rights and the ethical principle of autonomy.
Shrivastav, Shrivastava and Ramasamy (2013) stated that self-management skills are
an essential part of diabetes care and a trained nurse who is equipped with proper knowledge
and skills of diabetes management can be effective in the promotion of the self-management
of diabetes and thereby promotion the “common good”. An optimally trained nurse will
promote diabetes health-awareness at the community level and thus helping to promote
intensive glycemic control, promotion of therapeutic goals while reducing the barriers
towards the insulin initiation are other related aspects of diabetes. The promotion of the
diabetes education and health awareness at the community level will uplift the concept of
solidarity where service users will be bind together as one with common interests, standards
of care and sympathies.
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that in order to promote the
principal of common good for the effective management of diabetes globally, it will be the
duty of the nursing educators to optimally train and educate the nursing professionals in the
domain of effective diabetic management. A trained nurse is fully equipped to assist the
patients to take part in diabetes self-management while indulging in the informed decision
making process. The professional development of the nursing professionals in diabetes
management will help to reduce the global threat of diabetes while upholding the Human
Rights of autonomy and the concept of solidarity.

5
NURSING
References
DeNisco, S. M., & Barker, A. M. (2013). Advanced practice nursing: Evolving roles for the
transformation of the profession.
Diabetes Australia (2019). Tools and eLearning. . Access date: 30th Jan 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/tools-e-learning
Donley, Grandjean, Jairath, McMullen & Shelton (2006).Nursing and the Common Good.
Journal of the Catholic Health Association of United Statse.
Hollis, M., Glaister, K., & Anne Lapsley, J. (2014). Do practice nurses have the knowledge to
provide diabetes self-management education?. Contemporary nurse, 46(2), 234-241.
Modic, M. B., Vanderbilt, A., Siedlecki, S. L., Sauvey, R., Kaser, N., & Yager, C. (2014).
Diabetes management unawareness: what do bedside nurses know?. Applied Nursing
Research, 27(3), 157-161.
Munshi, M. N., Florez, H., Huang, E. S., Kalyani, R. R., Mupanomunda, M., Pandya, N., ...
& Haas, L. B. (2016). Management of diabetes in long-term care and skilled nursing
facilities: a position statement of the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes
care, 39(2), 308-318.
Nursing and the Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) (2019). Professional Code of
Conduct. Access date: 30th Jan 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/codes-guidelines-statements/
professional-standards.aspx

6
NURSING
Shrivastava, S. R., Shrivastava, P. S., & Ramasamy, J. (2013). Role of self-care in
management of diabetes mellitus. Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders, 12(1),
14.
World Health Organisation. (2016). Global Report On Diabetes. Access date: 30th Jan 2019.
Retrieved from:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/204871/9789241565257_eng.pdf;jses
sionid=3084FC1018A7C29288CEFFD5440DBDDD?sequence=1
Young, H., Miyamoto, S., Ward, D., Dharmar, M., Tang-Feldman, Y. and Berglund, L.,
2014. Sustained effects of a nurse coaching intervention via telehealth to improve
health behavior change in diabetes. Telemedicine and e-Health, 20(9), pp.828-834.