Implementation of a Multidisciplinary Diabetes Self-Management Training Class in Acute Rehabilitation

As a chronic medical condition, diabetes mellitus affects 29.1 million individuals in the United States. Since diabetes education reduces cost, there is a need for inpatient rehabilitation facilities to have education classes to address preexisting medical conditions, like diabetes. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to develop a class, determine feasibility, and explore the potential effectiveness. The intervention was Diabetes Self-Management Training Class with feasibility was quantified through (1) practicality (extent to which the intervention can be delivered), (2) acceptability (both of the participants and those participating in implementing the class), and (3) integration (how the class fit into the existing hospital infrastructure). With 42 participants, the class was practical, acceptable, as well as easily integrated into existing framework of the inpatient rehabilitation facility. While exploratory analysis using paired samples t-test revealed a significant average difference (p < .001) and a large effect size (d = 5.94), further research is required to determine effectiveness.