Problem: Pre-diabetes is an insidious condition that commonly persists for many years while progressing on to diabetes type 2. As many as 39% of patients who present with a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes already have the presence of diabetes complications at initial diagnosis. Diabetes has become an epidemic that continues to escalate annually. Diabetes can affect multiple organ systems and lead to serious debilitating complications. Ventura County is consumed with many diabetics. There are not any comprehensive diabetes education programs in the county. Purpose/Scope: The purpose of this evidence-based practice intervention was to evaluate the effectiveness of a Diabetes self-management education (DSME) program on patient’s health care utilization, medication use, self-efficaacy for diabetes and general disease management and ability to exercise, and glucose testing. A pres-test/post-test design was utilized to survey subjects participating in the program. The participants received education in four sequential sessions delivered at consistent time intervals over an eight week period. Goal: The goal of developing this program was to empower patients to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to improve health outcomes and to provide access to a diabetes self-management education program open to the general public residing in Ventura County in hopes to improve patient’s lives by reducing potential long-term diabetes complications following gaining knowledge of preventative care, improving early diabetes diagnosis, and reducing the workload of primary care practices. Objectives: the objectives of this project included: following the completion of the DSME program, the subject will gain improved scores on the Chronic Disease Self-Efficacy Scales: Exercise Regularly, Manage Disease in General, Health Care Utilizations, Glucose Testing, and self-efficacy to perform self-management behaviors comparing pre-course versus post-course scores. Plan: Phase I and II involved developing the proposal draft and submitting the document to the GPD. The proposal was submitted to the IRB and approved on 3/20/2007. The class content slides were finalized. Phase III involved recruiting subjects and advertising. The classes began April 9, 2007 and continued for four separate sessions through 5/14. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires were handed out to subjects on the first day and last day of classes. Following completion, the data was analyzed. Outcomes and Results: The pre-test and post-test mean scores were compared using paired t-test and the differences were statistically significant.
