Staff Education to Improve Diabetes Management Knowledge for Primary Healthcare Providers

I developed this Doctor of Nursing Practice staff education project to improve primary healthcare providers’ knowledge of diabetes management. Given the vital role nurses, advanced practice providers, and physicians play in patient education, chronic illness management, and care coordination, this issue must be addressed within nursing practice. The practice-focused question guiding this project was: Among primary healthcare providers, does implementing a structured diabetes education training program, compared to the current standard practice, improve provider knowledge in diabetes management? The purpose of this project was to develop, implement, and evaluate a targeted education intervention session. As analytical strategies, I employed expert evaluation to ensure content validity, paired t-test analysis to determine the significance of change, and pre- and posttest assessments to measure participant knowledge gains. Project findings revealed that the knowledge of primary healthcare providers improved after the education session. Statistical Package for the Social Science, Version 29.0 was used to perform a sample paired t test. The participants’ average pretest score was 8.70, and their average posttest score was 14.20. Statistical analysis produced a p value < .001. The project’s implications for nursing practice include decreased clinical variability, increased interdisciplinary teamwork, and better ability to provide evidence-based diabetic care. The implications for social change include fostering equitable access to diabetes care and motivating medical staff to advocate for patients who face obstacles to care due to their cultural background, financial situation, or level of health literacy.