Diabetes educators are becoming more confident in delivering personalised care to people with diabetes, a US survey reports.
The survey findings were presented at the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) annual meeting this week.
A total of 66% of healthcare professionals indicated they were very confident in promoting person-centred care, with 29.7% reporting feeling somewhat confident.
The survey was designed to assess confidence in person-centred diabetes care, such as how comfortable they were encouraging integration of strategies designed to focus on behavioural health, using technology to improve health outcomes and maximising health experiences for people with diabetes.
It was conducted by Gwen Klinkner, diabetes clinical nurse at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and the Inpatient Management Community of Interest (COI) chair for the AADE.
The majority (77%) of the 75 respondents were nurses, 16% were dietitians and 2.7% were pharmacists, all of whom were members of the COI.
Earlier this year Diabetes Digital Media’s Chief Medical Officer Campbell Murdoch spoke about the importance of personalised care in treating type 2 diabetes, an approach “which is now widely accepted across healthcare”.
Personalised care involves focusing on the needs and goals of people, providing them with options for treatment and augmenting their health journey.
There have been calls to harness technology to personalise care for older people with diabetes, which could provide people with better support to improve their health.
Klinkner said of the survey: “Survey results suggest that members […] are embracing the call to learn more and expand their role and expertise. These survey results give us a baseline; it’ll be exciting to see where we are in the next few years.”
