Do practice nurses have the knowledge to provide diabetes self-management education?

Practice nurses are ideally positioned to provide key aspects of self-management education to a large majority of people with diabetes within a primary care setting. However, practice nurses have seldom had comprehensive training in this field and consequently their role may have limitations. A study was designed to determine the diabetes related knowledge levels of practice nurses in a regional/rural setting in Australia.

A cross-sectional study was undertaken using a questionnaire to identify the knowledge of practice nurses. A convenience sample of PNs (N = 52) was drawn from a Division of General Practice in a regional/rural area of NSW. Data was collected using a 14 item knowledge survey from the National Association of Diabetes Centres.

Twenty-nine PNs (55%) responded to the survey; primarily the participants were registered nurses (89.6%), only one had completed a postgraduate qualification in diabetes, although 76% had recently completed one or more short courses in diabetes management. Pathophysiology related knowledge was strong (M = 88%) as was knowledge concerning blood glucose monitoring (87%). Less strong was dietary knowledge (79.5%), although one particular question relating to sources of carbohydrate contributed to the lower score. The weakest knowledge area was medication management, with PNs scoring a mean score of only 54%.

These findings suggest that PNs have deficits in the knowledge required for DSME and therefore, this must be addressed through targetting continuing professional development.