According to Myers Pugh and Twigg (2018) , nurse-sensitive indicators are elements that characterize the structures, processes, and outcomes of nursing care. The measures show how nursing care may impact health care. In recent years, nursing has experienced an evolution that seeks to advance the quality of care offered to patients. The nurse-sensitive indicators have provided nurses with an optimal level of control and sovereignty in the power of processes that revolve around the conception of health care provision. It is vital for nurses to understand the critical facets of nurse-sensitive indicators as they offer quantifiable approaches to evaluating the quality of patient care.
Condition: Diabetes
According to Wu et al. (2015) , currently, diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic ailments around the world. There are two categories of diabetes; type one and type two diabetes, whereby type two is the most prevalent form. Approximately 89.5 % of diabetic individuals are ailing from type two due to a mixture of genetic, environmental, and social factors. These aspects result in excessive discharge of insulin and glucagon, ultimately leading to a surge in sugar levels. Additionally, it is essential to know that an unhealthy way of life and dietary orientation deteriorates diabetic related illnesses. A nurse is vital in aiding the management of the disease to advance the patients’ quality of life. Therefore, numerous nurse-sensitive indicators should be assessed.
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Diabetes’ Nurse Sensitive indicators
Indicators are procedures that may be used quantitatively in nursing as well as in an assessment on management, support utilities, and clinical roles that may have an effect on the results of a specific patient. In this case, it will involve a discussion of nurse-sensitive indicators. There are various types of diabetes nurse-sensitive indicators. The first indicator involves an assessment of glycosylated hemoglobin. It is considered as a process-oriented mechanism as it is a representation of nursing interventions, principally guided by a health practitioner's well-versed clinical decision. It is essential to assess the hemoglobin levels in patients as it is crucially essential in improving the control of glycaemic, therefore resulting in a decline in diabetes-related complications.
The next indicator involves monitoring the level of high blood pressure. This leads to the regulation of blood pressure to improve the health outcomes in patients. This type of indicator is also a process indicator as it illustrates the nursing interventions that aim at advancing the results in diabetic individuals. The third form of a sensitive nurse indicator is diabetes education. Education on diabetes is a structural indicator as it characterizes the aspects of the patient that may have an impact on the ability to manage their health. Also, it is typified through academic training, exercising instructions, counseling, and nutritional instructions.
The other significant nurse-sensitive indicator involves Diabetic foot management. It is regarded as a mechanism that is outcome-oriented. As a result of diabetic neuropathy, which is mainly attributed to diabetes, individuals ailing from diabetes face an increased threat of acquiring diabetic foot complications. Moreover, an individual’s self-management mechanism of diabetic feet averts the growth of sores. Therefore, this helps in improving the general health condition of a specific patient. The nurses strive to offer education to diabetic patients on the modes of effectively maintaining healthy feet to avert foot complications. For example, the patients ailing from the disease should be encouraged on routine feet check-ups, regular feet cleaning, and maintaining moisture around the feet to avert cracking.
Care Plan
A nurse would use one of the indicators that include monitoring the level of glucose to assess the variation within the patient. As a result, it becomes unproblematic to implement nursing interventions such as insulin administration to regulate sugar levels. Sufficient blood sugar regulation is vital in preventing probable difficulties and improving results. Also, diabetes health education can be another nurse-sensitive indicator used by health practitioners to advance the outcomes. It consists of patients learning of various aspects. For instance, nutrition, monitoring glucose, changes in lifestyle, and role of the family in active diabetes management. To achieve self-assessment, the patient should use glucometers approximately twice each day, which promptly reports the findings.
It is appropriate to integrate regular eye check-ups in managing patients with diabetes. In this case, a nurse shall ascertain that patients are regularly assessed to aid in monitoring diabetes developments. This regular eye check-ups help in preventing the possible continuous diabetes-related ailments and effects such as blindness. Additionally, diabetic foot care is an extra nurse-sensitive indicator that may be used in providing care for patients to improve their outcomes. This is because it is beneficial to train convalescents on the significance of continuous feet check-up and feet care to avert the growth of sores. The use of the nurse-sensitive indicators may greatly assist in improving the outcome amongst the patients.
Healthcare is regularly dynamic, with modifications often happening in the optimism of enhancing the quality of health care for diabetic patients. As a result, the quality evaluation of care is considered to be very important. Each health practitioner plays an integral part in managing the patients' diabetic conditions. The characteristic is virtually conducted through the integration of nurse-sensitive indicators that may either be structural, process or result-oriented. In this case, it is crucial to incorporate the nursing interventions on recognized nurse-sensitive indicators to promote and enhance the quality of health care and outcomes amongst convalescents.
References
Myers, H., Pugh, J. D., & Twigg, D. E. (2018). Identifying nurse-sensitive indicators for stand-alone high acuity areas: A systematic review. Collegian , 25 (4), 447-456.
Wu, Y., Ding, Y., Tanaka, Y., & Zhang, W. (2015). Risk factors contributing to type 2 diabetes and recent advances in treatment and prevention —international journal of medical sciences , 11 (11), 1185.
