Preparing the woman with gestational diabetes for self-care. Use of a structured teaching plan by nursing staff

Staff nurses are expected to teach patients with diabetes effectively, but studies indicate that nurses are often uncertain about determining the proper content to teach and the teaching methods to use. Evidence suggests that patients with gestational diabetes are crisis oriented and may have barriers to learning the necessary skills for self-care. To combat this problem, the authors developed the Structured Teaching Plan to guide staff nurses in teaching patients with gestational diabetes. This tool provides reinforcement of content and objective evaluation, thereby assisting the patient in overcoming learning barriers. This article reviews and outlines the components of the Structured Teaching Plan and its implementation and evaluation.