The Influence of Nurse-Led Interventions on Diseases Management in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus: A Narrative Review

Abstract

The global prevalence of people with diabetes mellitus (PWD) is rapidly increasing. Nurses can provide diabetes care for PWD in several areas. Interventions led by nurses can support PWD for effective management of diabetes, which can positively improve clinical outcomes. Nurse-led diabetes self-management education (DSME) is an effective strategy to manage diabetes mellitus (DM) since it improves self-care practice and knowledge regarding diabetes. PWD often need to stay in hospitals longer, which involves poorer patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. Nurse-led clinics for DM management are a new strategy to possibly ameliorate the disease management. Diabetes specialist nurses can play an important role in improving diabetes care in inpatient settings. Various studies have revealed that nurses can independently provide care to PWD in collaboration with various other healthcare providers. Studies also demonstrated that the nurse-led education-receiving group showed a significantly reduced level of average glycosylated haemoglobin A1c level. Moreover, nurse-led interventions often result in significant improvements in diabetes knowledge, psychological outcomes, self-management behaviours, and physiological outcomes. The purpose of this literature review was to identify the impact of nurse-led interventions on diabetes management. Moreover, in this review, a number of nursing interventions and the nurses’ roles as educators, motivators as well as caregivers in DM management have been extensively discussed. This article also summarises the outcomes that are measured to evaluate the impact of nursing interventions and the strategies to overcome the existing and emerging challenges for nurses in diabetes care.

Keywords

• diabetes mellitus
• chronic patients
• nurse-led interventions
• self-management
• patient outcomes