Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Summary of Intervention and Implementation
The intervention includes educating people with diabetes about self-management to improve glycemic control and prevent complications. The teaching plan was developed in collaboration with all the members of the multidisciplinary team. Each member of the team contributed to the development of the teaching plan. For example, the nutritionist provided the dietary information while the physical therapist provided information regarding exercises and the appropriate physical activities. The interprofessional collaborators included the nurse, physician, pharmacist, nutritionist, physical therapist, and podiatrist.
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The nurse and the physician were actively involved in the development of the care plan, especially in managing the care aspects of individuals with diabetes. The pharmacists provided information about the medications, while the nutritionist provided the dietary information. On the other hand, the physical therapist provided information regarding exercises and the appropriate physical activities, while the podiatrist gave information about the appropriate foot care for people with diabetes. Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
During this project, leadership was paramount. I coordinated the team member by arranging for the meetings and overseeing that each team member fulfilled their roles. As the team leader of the project, I developed the objectives of the project and fostered honest and open communication among the team members. Communication is fundamental to ensure the success of a project and to coordinate tasks and roles successfully. The leader has the role to promote open communication from all team members. I also applied a transformational leadership style where I motivated and inspired all team members to work together as a team to achieve the project’s goals. According to Sfantou et al (2017),the ability of the leader to motivate and inspire team members allows members to be actively involved and participate in quality improvement initiatives. Organizational leadership was also very significant in this project. The leadership provided the necessary resources, including the staff to facilitate the implementation of the project.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Evidence-Based Rationale for Professional Product Development
The professional product that was developed is a teaching plan for people with diabetes. The product was selected because individuals with diabetes need to be equipped with the skills, strategies, and knowledge to manage their condition. Evidence indicates that patient education improves diabetes management and interventions focusing on improving patient knowledge and skills to improve diabetes control (Chester et al., 2018). Additionally, diabetes education improves patient satisfaction and makes the patient more willing to be actively involved in their treatment plan, in addition to improving treatment adherence. Diabetes education to patients improves their knowledge and skills and thus contributes to reducing diabetes complications.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Teaching patients on how to manage diabetes is essential because effective management of diabetes necessitates anintensive effort on the part of the patient and thus patients should be engaged to take an active role in self-care by implementing the necessary lifestyle modifications. To handle the complexities and challenges associated with day-to-day diabetes, patients with diabetes should acquire the core knowledge, as well as possess the abilities, motivation, and skills for self-management (Karaoui et al., 2018). Therefore, education is a fundamental aspect of self-management for people with diabetes.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
It is thus anticipated that the developed product (teaching plan) will improve self-management for people with diabetes. As a result, effective self-management will ensure effective glycemic control and prevent any diabetes complications for this patient population. A study performed by Karaoui et al (2018) indicated that diabetes education to patients improved their diabetes knowledge and management skills and significantly contributed to reduced incidence of diabetic complications. Moreover, teaching patients how to manage their diabetes has been shown to improve patient satisfaction because patients feel that they are proactively involved in their treatment (Coppola et al., 2016). Studies indicate that diabetes education helps patient to understand how to use devices like insulin pumps and blood glucose meters; helps them adopt healthy eating habits and exercises, as well as develop skills to self-manage their condition (Coppola et al., 2016).Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Plan Proposal
Introduction
Type 2 diabetes is among the leading cause of death in the US and contributes to significant healthcare costs. The direct costs include costs associated with hospitalization, glucose monitoring supplies, drugs, and utilization of healthcare services, while the indirect costs include lost productivity due to morbidity/mortality, decreased quality of life for patients and their family, as well as costs allied to absenteeism (Stenov et al., 2019). Therefore, implementing an evidence-based project (EBP) like a self-management education (DSME) program is projected to improve healthcare outcomes for individuals with type 2 diabetes.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Implementation Plan
The proposed plan is to implement a DSME project aimed to assist individuals with diabetes to attain and maintain healthy blood glucose levels. The project will also empower people with diabetes to learn regarding the condition and the associated complications (Stenov et al., 2019). The DSME project will target adults with diabetes mellitus visiting the healthcare organization. The potential participants will be chosen randomly from the electronic patient database utilizing a variable of A1C over 8%. The selected participants will be contacted through telephone conversations to discuss their participation. Informed consent will be sought from all participants before the beginning of the program.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Initially, a comprehensive community assessment will be performed to identify the present diabetes education resources as well as the self-perceived needs of individuals with diabetes. Additional activities will include organizing material, human and financial resources necessary to establish a DSME project, engaging key stakeholders and partners, as well as assessing techniques of the DSME program.
Educational materials will be based on culturally relevant standards of care, available in the English language. The proposed topics include symptoms of diabetes complications; appropriate lifestyle modifications with exercise and diet; measuring glucose levels; adherence to the treatment regimen; regular follow-up and preventative care; as well as coping behavior (Powers et al., 2016). Therefore, the education program will help the target population to maintain the required blood glucose levels and thus avoid complications; this will improve patient safety, reduce morbidity and mortality, as well as reduce the healthcare costs associated with treating the complications.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
A multidisciplinary team will collaborate to implement the project. The team will consist of a physician, nurse, pharmacist, dietician, physical therapist, and a podiatrist. The nurse and physician will educate about the audience about several aspects of diabetes care; the pharmacists will educate about medications; dietician about the appropriate nutrition modifications; podiatrist about foot care; while the physical therapists will provide information about appropriate exercises and physical activities (Golden et al., 2017).Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Appropriate Technology
According to Pereira et al (2015),the Internet-based provision of DSME is an effective means to overcome barriers of limited access, distance, and scheduling logistics. The internet has been used widely to provide health education and disseminate health information. The provision of health education via the internet is done through information sharing, downloadable written instructions and brochures, and computerized questionand answer websites (Hunt, 2015). The internet enables individuals to access up-to-date suitable diabetes information about disease processes, medications, glucose monitoring, treatment, lifestyle modifications, and complication prevention. However, even though patient education via the internet is convenient, cost-effective, and addresses barriers associated with distance, it is associated with barriers such as lack of adequate skills and knowledge to handle the technology, especially among the older adults (Heitkemper et al., 2017).Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
The Impact of Governmental or Organizational Policies
The purpose of the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education is to outline quality DSME, support, and help diabetes educators to provide self-management support and evidence-based education to people with diabetes (Beck et al., 2017). Nurses are required to support the provision of comprehensive education to people with diabetes to delay or prevent complications, help in adhering to treatment, and implement appropriate lifestyle modifications. Therefore, nurses are required to provide self-management support and evidence-based education regarding the National Standards for Diabetes DSME. The National Standards encouragenurses to provide DSME to address the whole panorama of every patient and ensure regular communication among the multidisciplinary team to facilitate the provision of effective and high-quality education (Beck et al., 2017).Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
DSME has been demonstrated to improve knowledge and skills on self-management behavior for people with diabetes. The improve self-management improves health outcomes such as control of glycemia, cholesterol, blood pressure, avoidance of complications, and improved quality of life (Greenwood et al., 2017).
Strategies toCommunicate and Collaborate to Improve Health Outcomes
The relevant stakeholders who will be actively involved and updated about this project include the administration, all members of the multidisciplinary team, and the patients. When implementing quality improvement projects, it is important to seek input from all relevant stakeholders. For example, while seeking input from the relevant stakeholders about the project, it was surprising to discover that patient input is among the most aspect of ensuring project success. Patients proposed their preferred method of teaching, where some even suggested that they would require training about the planned technology for education provision.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
To improve communication and collaboration, the multidisciplinary team, along with representatives from other stakeholders will hold regular meetings to update about the project’s activities and milestones. Secondly, a social-media platform will be opened for all stakeholders where a WhatsApp group will be opened where stakeholders can interact with each other and share opinions. This will promote collaborative communication and assist stakeholders to understand their role and freely talk about their views, roles, and teamwork (Wang et al., 2018). Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
The prevalence of diabetes keeps rising and the increased prevalence of diabetes is attributable to sedentary lifestyles and obesity. Self-management education had been shown to play an important role in facilitating the successful management of diabetes (Powers et al., 2016). Management of diabetes involves adhering to the treatment regimen and the patients with diabetes making lifestyle changes that include appropriate eating habits, adhering to medications, monitoring the level of blood glucose, smoke cessation, engaging in physical activities, and addressing the psychological aspects associated with living with a chronic disease. Lack of skills and knowledge for diabetes self-management continues to be a major problem for patients with diabetes (Gathu et al., 2018). Therefore, it is important to equip people with diabetes with the necessary diabetes self-care skills such as monitoring blood glucose, healthy eating, appropriate dental care, and physical activities.
The goal relevant to the identified health problem (lack of diabetes self-management skills) is to ensure patients with diabetes visiting the healthcare organization are provided with the diabetes self-management education that is based on evidence-based standards and integrates the needs and life experiences of the patient.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
The health problem is relevant to my practice because diabetes is associated with major and severe complications and thus it necessitates continuous attention and regular follow-up. Effective self-care and adequate glycemic control are the keystones of diabetes care (Powers et al., 2016).Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Analysis of Evidence from the Literature and Professional Sources
All the studies that will be included should be peer-reviewed journal articles, published after 2015 to ensure only the current studies are included, and they will be critically critiqued using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programmed (CASP) appraisal tool.
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease typified by microvascular and macrovascular complications because of high glucose levels. Diabetes is the topmost cause of morbidity and among the largest healthcare problem within the US, in terms of cost, prevalence, and the burden placed on people and the country as a whole (Powers et al., 2016).Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
A study performed by Mphil et al (2016) to examine the impact of diabetes self-management skills indicated that lack of knowledge on the proper diet and low level of self-management skills leads to poor control of blood glucose levels. As Whittemore et al (2019) explain, due to the chronic nature of diabetes, the condition needs continuous attention to ensure that blood pressure and blood glucose levels are maintained at near-normal levels and lower diabetes-related complications. A study performed by Golden et al (2017) indicated that an interdisciplinary self-care education intervention based on best practices guidelines equipped people with diabetes with the appropriate skills to effectively monitor blood glucose levels, adopt healthy lifestyles, and promptly identify possible complications. However, some patients with diabetes lack the skills to self-management their condition leading to deteriorating conditions and possible complications.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Rosswurm and Larrabee Model is a suitable model for the diabetes education initiative. The model includes six steps that focus on improving health outcomes. The first step of the model involves assessing the need for change; identifying potential interventions to address the problem; evidence synthesis; designing practice change; implementing and evaluating the change practice; and the last step is integrating and maintaining the change practice (Parkosewich, 2015). The model is easy to use, organized and allows constant monitoring of programs and this it is appropriate for diabetes self-management education. Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Strategies to Improve Outcomes
The proposed initiative aims to improve the participation of patients with diabetes in self-management care. The current standards on self-management of diabetes will be implemented to equip patients with the appropriate diabetes self-management skills. An interdisciplinary team consisting of nurses, nurse manager, nutritionist, physical therapist, social worker, podiatrist, and nurse educator will provide a self-care education based on best practices guidelines to patients with diabetes (Golden et al., 2017). The leadership component supporting the program and the multidisciplinary approach is facilitating collaboration among team members to improve care outcomes.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Therefore, this proposed initiative will initiate a culture of evidence-based practice that integrates patient needs, preferences, values, and life experiences. The evidence-based working setting will allow translation of the clinical standards of self-management education into daily practice as per the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The education intervention will empower patients with diabetes to make appropriate health decisions. Moreover, the integration of patient needs and preferences will ensure the provision of patient-centered care.
Relevant State Board Nursing Practice Standards
According to the board of nursing, nurses are required to ensure patient safety, maintain health, and use a systemic approach to provide goal-directed and personalized care (Ortiz et al., 2018). Therefore, the proposed patient education on diabetes self-management aims to ensure patient safety and maintain health by ensuring the target population has the required skills and knowledge to self-manage their condition and avoid possible complications.Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.
Throughout the program, it will be important to ensure that an informed consent of patients is sought before providing education. This will ensure that the appropriate ethical principles are upheld (Dankar et al., 2019).
Professional Product to Improve Care or Patient Experience.