Lydiya Thomas and Sri Krishnamoorthy
Dr Grays Hospital, UK
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Statement of the Problem: Diabetes mellitus is a commonly encountered diagnosis in hospitalized patients that is associated with prolonged admissions and mortality. Diabetes UK found that up to 20% of 5 hospital admissions have diabetes and complications related to the condition. Therefore, healthcare providers need to have a sound knowledge in managing inpatients with diabetes. Thus the aim of this audit was to assess the diabetes-related knowledge of healthcare professionals in a district general hospital. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: A 24-item questionnaire, based on the ???Think Check Act (TCA)??? diabetes modules implemented by the Healthcare Improvement Scotland was issued to the medical and nursing staff. Simple statistics were used for data collation and analysis. Findings: 30 questionnaires were completed by 11 doctors at varying stages of training, 17 nurses, 1 physician associate and 2 healthcare assistants. 22 (73.3%) correctly defined hypoglycaemia, 27 (90%) knew the location of hypo box, 12 (40%) knew the insulin half-life but only 8 (26.7%) scored on desirable blood sugar monitoring and 7 (23.3%) were aware of TCA. Other management related to diabetes is shown in table below. Conclusion & Significance: Knowledge about managing in-patient diabetes is average to poor among healthcare professionals, highlighting a significant gap in the system. Structures educational programmers would be useful to knowledge and thereby patient outcomes.
Lydiya Thomas is a Core Medical trainee doctor working in NHS Grampian. She completed her MBChB from University of Aberdeen, Scotland and she has an interest in diabetes and its management in hospitals. She has worked on few projects involving diabetes and currently completing an audit cycle on in-patient knowledge about diabetes by healthcare professionals, with a view to implement educational sessions and ultimately improve patient outcmes.
E-mail: lydiya.thomas@nhs.net
