Carbohydrate Counting in the Acute Care Setting: Development of an Educational Program Based on Cognitive Load Theory

The care of noncritically ill hospitalized patients with diabetes mellitus requiring insulin administration is multidisciplinary and complex. Evidence indicates that staff nurses may benefit from additional training in the nutritional management of patients with diabetes. In addition, unlicensed assistive personnel may be involved in the feeding and point-of-care testing of diabetic patients and thus play an important role in nursing care of such patients. Cognitive load theory assists educators in the identification of specific cognitive challenges that learners may face when presented with new material, but it also presents solutions to such challenges by way of specific instructional design methods to help overcome them. An educational program was piloted on a mixed audience of registered nurses and unlicensed assistive personnel at a community hospital; satisfaction with the program was found to be high.