Free Essay: The Role of Nurses in Providing Dietary Education for Type 2 Diabetic

Type 2 diabetes is rising in the United Kingdom at an alarming rate. However, ethnic minority groups, more so the Asians within the nation, are affected more than any other ethnicity. Not only do they lack sufficient knowledge about the disease, but they are also inadequately served. Even though the number of medics and dietitians in the UK is still low, healthcare services are mainly accessed by wealthy societal members. That way, the minority groups are left to suffer alone on the bottom of the food chain. This paper is, therefore, focused on addressing the role of nurses in providing dietary education to type 2 diabetic patients from ethnic minority groups within the UK. It is only through such mechanisms that a person can survive for a long duration even after being diagnosed with the illness. Peer-reviewed books and journals were used to complete the study to ensure that it is well-informed and relevant to the contemporary situation. Contents in dietary education, barriers to diabetes self-management, and types of educational interventions are all discussed expansively. Finally, recommendations on how to facilitate effective self-management and creation of awareness are provided in the last section of the write-up. Having a better understanding of type 2 diabetes and how to manage it using an appropriate dietary strategy is vital for the survival of patients suffering from the illness.

A Review of the Role of Nurses in Providing Dietary Education for Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Ethnic Minority Groups

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Introduction

The aetiology of diabetes is highly challenging and is linked with numerous irreversible risk factors, including but not limited to age, genetics, race, and ethnicity, and reversible factors such as drinking, type of food, and exercising (Sami et al., 2017). Type 2 Diabetes is a killer disease, although it can be managed if proper care is done. Controlling the impact and effect of the disease can be done by improving a patient’s knowledge, attitude, and practices through public awareness. The three factors above form an integral part of comprehensive diabetes care. The leading cause of Type 2 Diabetes is unhealthy eating habits (Sami et al., 2017). Patients who do not adhere to strict diet plans and exercise prescribed to them by their doctors, together with given medications, are often suffering major complications that lower their survival rate and lifespan (Islam et al., 2015). Diabetic patients need reinforcement of diabetes education, including awareness of how they can manage their diet as directed by their doctors to ensure that they understand how to manage the disease properly (Sami et al., 2017). That way, they will be adequately informed with necessary self-care and thus live a quality life.

Nevertheless, the comparative effectiveness of such mechanisms and the proper description of exact patients who benefit from each of the approaches distinguishingly is still not known. Dietitians usually collaborate with other healthcare providers to study the impact of dietary education on patients with type 2 diabetes (Naccashian, 2014). They try their level best to come up with the most appropriate routines for the patients. It is critical to analyse diabetes education's effectiveness from related factors and settings such as nutrition information and barriers. Notably, type 2 diabetes is a significant health concern in the United Kingdom. The quantity and the composition and quality of food consumed determines the level of one’s risk to attract illnesses such as obesity and diabetes and their capacity to survive after the diagnosis. Improvement in the elevated blood sugar levels can be achieved more effectively through diet management; therefore, the patient could be easily prevented from developing complications that could render them vulnerable weaker. Healthcare providers are challenged to build a strong relationship with their patients and encourage them to understand and embrace the dietary life they should live to realise the essence of diet in managing their situation. Such links are built first in the hospital when a patient is admitted. Type 2 diabetes kills slowly. After diagnosing an individual with the disease, healthcare providers should build a rapport with the patient by having a proper introduction to one another and talking about the management of the disease. After that, nurses should take it as their responsibility to do a follow-up even when a patient is discharged to see if they are adhering to the prescribed diet and medication. It is only through such simple measures that nurses can help diabetic patients, more so those who are coming from the ethnic minority group, in this case, mainly the Asians living in the UK, to lead a better life.

Nurses play a vital role in the education process of patients with type 2 diabetes to empower and engage them, thus improving their wellbeing. It is undeniable that nurses are always the first people to interact with patients. Having such contact is critical as it enables nurses to utilise their specialised knowledge, training, and skills in diabetes care to provide patient education and encouragement through practical ways. In line with that, it is essential to dig deeper into the role of nurses in improving the wellbeing of type 2 diabetic patients. The challenges that they encounter while executing their duties should also be addressed so that remedies can be looked for and implemented for better performance. Many studies have emphasised the importance of diet management among type 2 diabetic patients and how the types of food people consume should be controlled and balanced to reduce the incidents of type 2 diabetes diagnosis. In the UK, diabetes is continually rising, along with other lifestyle diseases such as myocadiac infarction, stroke, obesity, and kidney diseases. According to the SABRE study, at least £11 billion is spent annually on the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Such resources could be used elsewhere if people worked adequately on their diets to avoid getting the illness in the first place. It is from this perspective that the essence of education comes in. As the nurses concentrate on educating the patients on how to manage their meals, they would also be creating a substantial public awareness that not only informs the public of the difficulties in living with type 2 diabetes but also telling them what to do to avoid ending up in such a scenario. Children and young adults have recorded rising diabetes diagnosis cases in the recent past, so education should also be focused on young people (Candler et al., 2018). Moreover, the majority of patients from ethnic minority groups such the Asians in the UK do not have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the various factors that can influence their diet. From a tender age, people from such groups struggle to avail bread in the table. As a result, they are usually forced to eat what is readily available without necessarily considering the nutritional aspect of their meals. Besides, they do not have much of a choice as their earnings are usually low, and the average cost of living seems way too high for them all year round. Correspondingly, it becomes tough for nurses to convince patients from such backgrounds otherwise, i.e., that they need to manage their diet to avoid suffering severely from their condition. It is also naturally challenging for the patients to adhere to the dietary regimens to manage their illness independently. The paper's main aim is to review the roles of nurses in providing nutritional education in controlling type 2 diabetes for patients in the minority group. It will also address different types of educational interventions appropriate for the identified study participants and the barriers to diabetes management as experienced by both medics and patients.

Methodology

This paper required better utilisation of resources that were already existing to gain a better view of the trend of how type 2 diabetes has been managed over the past years among the ethnic minority groups in the UK. As a result, a narrative review approach was used to identify all the necessary information about the research topic. The narrative review technique enables the gathering of evidence from numerous primary researches on a given topic area and sums up such pieces of evidence to allow the reader to come up with a better and well-informed conclusion. Narrative reviews are highly helpful when conducting research that covers a large geographical area and one that needs to show trends that have been recorded for many years. It would be complicated to do interviews, observations, and other primary data collection techniques in such a situation as it would turn out as being very expensive and time-consuming. Furthermore, historical research enabled me to use only peer-reviewed and highly reputable sources of information that have been relied upon in the past in making critical decisions. Conducting primary research would see me making a lot of errors that would have rendered the study less reliable and informative. The narrative review gives a collection of what different investigations found about the study topic and enables one to come up with the most appropriate conclusion that offers a better representation of the situation on the ground. It synthesises evidence that is currently published to demonstrate the best evidence that is now available. The mechanism also highlights the significance of new research and recognises the contributions done daily on how to improve various situations.

An electronic literature search was conducted to gather all the relevant articles for the study. Search for articles online in several libraries enables quicker and easier access than visiting the libraries physically and going from shelf to shelf in search of a book or journal. There were also crucial and highly informative and reputable websites run by non-governmental organizations and government institutions that offered a lot of assistance in completing the study. Primary, secondary, and tertiary information relating to nursing and medicine were gathered from different libraries within a short span, compared to the time that could have been used otherwise when a physical visit to the libraries was conducted. Markedly, data that was obtained was presented in different forms such as journals, books, and other databases. That was, I was able to access ideas that were varied and also topic-specific. Having such a wide range of information permitted me to select only the best and highly informative resources to include in the study. For the initial search, Google Scholar was used for accessing reputable journals such as Nursing Times and Nursing Standard that provided preliminary ideas on the topic under study. Moreover, Google Books was also used to identify a few books that contain research about the study topic. Such sites were essential as they enabled me to draw together initial ideas and provide a helpful overview that familiarised me with the identified study topic and identify useful resources and websites that aided in doing further research. Some of the keywords that were used while looking for existing research online included, but not limited to ‘type 2 diabetes,’ ‘adult,’ ‘ethnic group,’ ‘nutrition,’ and ‘Asian.’