Guidelines and Inpatient Diabetes Nurse Specialists

Published Date: 19th July 2016

Publication Authors: Cardwell J, , Hardy KJ, O'Brien S

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Aim:  Diabetes specialist nurses (DSNs) have a vital role in enabling people to self-manage and in supporting non-specialist staff. Our research has identified low diabetes knowledge amongst ward nurses and students, but this may not be problematic if DSNs bridge the gap. Here, we surveyed ward nurses to determine their confidence at managing diabetes and their satisfaction with DSN support.

Methods:  We developed a survey with questions relating to staff confidence, awareness of diabetes, inpatient guidelines and satisfaction with DSN support. We distributed the survey across surgical and medical wards for staff to complete anonymously.

Results:  Ninety surveys were returned; only 32% (29/90) felt confident with their knowledge of diabetes and 28% (25/90) with their management of diabetes; 44% (40/90) wanted more DSN support, 19% (17/90) asked for more teaching sessions and 11% (10/90) commented that junior doctors needed more education. Thirty-two per cent (29/90) were not aware of the inpatient guidelines and 52% (47/90) reported not using the guidelines.

Conclusion:  Like many trusts, we have invested increased DSN time to inpatient management and have extensive clinical guidelines. Yet this study found staff lacked confidence, over half did not use the guidelines and many wanted increased support from DSNs. We knew diabetes knowledge was poor and wondered if DSNs bridged the gap but these results indicate that this is not the case. In conclusion, the causes of suboptimal inpatient diabetes care are multifactorial and complex; increasing DSN input alone may not be enough to address the issues and more work is urgently needed.

Ford, N; Cardwell, J; O'Brien, SV; Hardy, KJ. (2013).  Guidelines and inpatient diabetes nurse specialists are not enough to deliver high quality in patient diabetes care . Diabetic Medicine. 30 (Supplement S1), 103.

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