“Insulin +” Therapy Education Programme

Given the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus, implementing “Insulin +” Therapy Education Programme stems from the need to improve knowledge and build skills in people with type 1 diabetes. This paper is based on this need. The study was conducted with a non-random sample, in which 30 people with type 1 diabetes were invited to participate. They were selected from among all of the patients who attended the Diabetes Unit of a regional hospital centre in central Portugal. After the “Insulin +” Therapy Education Programme intervention there was an improvement in the subjects’ knowledge, particularly in self-monitoring (ideal glycaemia value, hand-washing, glycaemia testing and disinfection of the testing location) and insulin therapy (maintenance, technique and administration location, prevention of hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia).The programme can be applied as a measure of therapeutic education and evaluation and auditing of good clinical practice.