•In Africa, where healthcare resources are limited, nurses are the front line for patients managing diabetes.
•Nurses connect with local communities and empower them through education, potentially yielding significant societal and health-economic benefits
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Nurses in the country can access an online course in management of diabetes.
The course, Nurses on Diabetes (NOD), by Roche Diabetes Care (RDC) seeks to bridge social and economic inequalities in access to care by patients.
The Roche NOD online course is aimed at overcoming barriers to access to healthcare education to bolster healthcare’s first line of defense.
The programme goes beyond clinical education, incorporating coaching elements to promote a holistic approach to diabetes management.
In Africa, where healthcare resources are limited, nurses are the front line for patients managing diabetes.
According to Roche, nurses connect with local communities and empower them through education, potentially yielding significant societal and health-economic benefits.
Due to this, up skilling them will be instrumental in addressing widespread barriers to care.
According to Susan Snell from Roche Diabetes Care, nursing training solutions are for everyone, as they have far-reaching benefits to patients, the economy and the society at large.
"This complements Roche Diabetes Care’s commitment to improving access to care by supporting all aspects of care including education,” Snell said.
“Notably, concurrently investing in nurse education benefits individual patients that helps them understand their diabetes better, bring changes in their behavior and take charge of their diabetes management,” Snell said.
The programme is currently operational in South Africa, Nigeria, India and Kenya.
Beth Kairu, a Registered Nurse and diabetes nurse educator at Aga Khan University Hospital said the NOD programme has enabled nurses to share vital, up-to-date knowledge and skillsets on diabetes and diabetes management with patients.
“At the clinic waiting bay, the nurses offer health talks on key topics in the management of diabetes – for example, diet, exercise, and how to monitor sugars and sugar checks at home,” she noted.
She said through the programme, nurses are able to recognise the needs, weaknesses, and gaps of their clients when they visit the clinic and provide appropriate education to ensure that the clients have good glycemic control on their subsequent visits.
Additionally, the clients are able to recognise and value the services provided by the clinic, she said.
“When a client needs close follow-up, the nurse follows up with them on a regular basis and gives them hotline numbers to call in case they have any questions; this way, they are taken care of without their needing to visit the clinic,” Kairu noted.
Kairu said the programme has provided additional knowledge and skills that vastly increased the nurses’ confidence in handling diabetic patients holistically.
This, she said, is from diagnosis right through to when the patient has been stabilised and then in discussion on how patients can manage the condition themselves.