Nurses’ Perceptions of their Role in Caring for Diabetic Patients at the Primary Care Level

Abstract

Despite considerable investment and sustained efforts from the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life (MOHQL) and the National Non-communicable Disease Prevention and Control Programme, the incidence of diabetes in Mauritius remains one of the highest in the world. This study explores the views of nurses on how well they were able to fulfil their role in caring for patients with diabetes at the primary health care level. A phenomenological approach was used for the research and data were collected through a semi-structured interview from 10 participants at five community health care centres. Colaizzi's framework was adopted for data analysis. The findings revealed that the majority of nurses did not feel knowledgeable enough to give effective care to diabetic patients. The following four main themes emerged: management of care, barriers to caring, communication skills, and training and educational needs in diabetes care. Due to the deficit in their level of knowledge in diabetes care and management, nurses admitted not being able to effectively fulfil their role as ‘teacher, coach, manager and supporter’. This study has implications for clinical practice in that appropriate training must be provided to these nurses if significant improvements are to be made in the outcomes.