Introduction
Diabetes has been among the common chronic diseases affecting a significant population of patients across us for the past three decades Fang, (2020). Diabetic prevalence indicates that diabetic management still demands attention despite healthcare practitioners developing various interventional strategies. Diabetes self-management education can be a very effective framework for instilling behavior changes that promote healthy behaviors aimed at managing Diabetes (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2020). This essay defines a detailed patient care policy that will promote the effective provision of individualized diabetic education for diabetic populations in my local community Diabetic Education Centre. This policy aims to ensure all the stakeholders involved in the management of Diabetes are actively engaged in the whole exercise of diabetes management. I will give a detailed plan to guide the encouragement of stakeholders’ participation in supporting the new policy and define their roles in implementing it. I will also identify potential supporters and opposers of the developed policy.
Health policy statement
Certified educators should provide the diabetic management education offered in Diabetic Education Centers, and this education should be research and evidence-based. It should also be customized per community or patient needs. This policy will facilitate a Diabetes self-management strategy that considers equity, accessibility to care education, total patient engagement, cultural competency, and individualized diabetes care strategies. Diabetic education should promote a multidisciplinary team approach to providing patient care, and Diabetes Education Centers should audit their effectiveness in providing diabetic care and use feedback or audit reports to pinpoint areas that need further improvements.
Stakeholder participants in implementing this policy shall be all diabetic patients, healthcare professionals, local community authorities, policy experts and developers, non-governmental agencies available, and government agencies.
Stakeholders’ Role in policy development
Healthcare professionals shall include nurses, healthcare administrators, and pharmacists, providing research and evidence-based ideas practicable in diabetes management. These professionals shall be consulted on aspects incorporated in policing to attain healthcare per the healthcare guidelines and goals. Healthcare professionals like nurses’ influences on policy formulation can provide insights into opportunistic strategies that can recourse quality of healthcare Parnell et al., (2014). Patients can inform about educational strategies that can suit them. Additionally, they can provide guidelines that will be used in drafting a policy that is compatible with their culture. Government agencies will provide information that will guide the policy to be drafted by laws that govern human healthcare. Local leaders will be used in manipulating community members to take part in conducting relevant studies that might be necessary to make informed decisions for the course that the policies will take. For example, the policymaker might require information about cultural practices that might influence the provision of patient-centered education on diabetes management. For this scenario, the appropriate stakeholder to call for this study can be local community leaders.
Policy experts will provide guidelines that govern the formulation of healthcare-related policies.
This policy is likely to be supported by stakeholders such as Diabetes Education Centre Administrators, community members, diabetic patients, local authorities, and healthcare professionals; however, medical practitioners who might view the policy as inconvenient due to workload concerns can oppose this policy. Similarly, policymakers with conflicting interests with the new policy can be potential opposers to this policy.
However, for this policy to avoid huge opposition forces from opposers and at the same time promote its acceptance across the stakeholders, it is essential to ensure that consent that entails the whole policing process is provided to the stakeholders. Additionally, to provide the policy with added odds of acceptance, respective educational programs for different stakeholders will be conducted to help these stakeholders have an in-depth understanding of these policies. The consent and educational programs will ensure that each stakeholder is aware of the benefits likely to come with the effective implementation of the policy. All stakeholders will participate in the policy formulation exercise, and each stakeholder’s contributions will be considered and appreciated. Any concerns the stakeholders raise will be considered to avoid conflicts with stakeholders involved with the newly developed policy.
Finally, to ensure stakeholders can fully support this policy if they are convinced to adopt the suggested changes. One of the strategies that will convince stakeholders to accept the new changes is providing the policy with a legal framework that will make the policy guidelines a requirement for the Diabetes Education Centers. Riegel et al., (2021) suggest that there is an increased urge to incorporate policies that are self-care based in the healthcare system to deal with chronic diseases.
Conclusion
Formulating policies that guide Diabetic Education Center care programs to provide patient-centered education can effectively motivate health behaviors that can encourage diabetes self-management. Implementation of this policy will lead to improved patient outcomes. Total stakeholder involvement in policy formulation can ensure that policies developed can prioritize patient education care that is competent and evidence-based. Furthermore, the policies will promote diabetes management strategies customized to patients’ needs. Policy formulated through inclusive stakeholder involvement ensures that the policies formulated have the least conflict of interest with high implementation power. For a policy to gain significant acceptance and promote patient behavior change, the policy can be assigned a legal framework that can govern the implementation of all policy elements.
References
American Association of Diabetes Educators. (2020). An effective model of diabetes care and education: revising the AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors®. The Diabetes Educator, 46(2), 139-160.
Fang, M. (2020). Trends in diabetes management among US adults: 1999–2016. Journal of general internal medicine, 35, 1427-1434.
Parnell, T. A., Stichler, J. F., Barton, A. J., Loan, L. A., Boyle, D. K., & Allen, P. E. (2019, July). A concept analysis of health literacy. In Nursing forum (Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 315-327).
Riegel, B., Dunbar, S. B., Fitzsimons, D., Freedland, K. E., Lee, C. S., Middleton, S., … & Jaarsma, T. (2021). Self-care research: where are we now? Where are we going? International journal of nursing studies, 116, 103402.
write