Comparing perceived self-management practices of adult type 2 diabetic patients after completion of a structured ADA certified diabetes self-management education program with unstructured individualized nurse practitioner led diabetes self-management educ

PurposeThe purpose was to compare perceived self-management practices of adult type 2 diabetic patients after completing an American Diabetes Association (ADA) certified diabetes self-management education (DSME) program with unstructured individualized nurse practitioner led DSME.MethodsDemographic questions and the Self-Care Inventory-Revised (SCIR) were given to two convenience sample patient groups comprising a formal DSME program group and a group within a clinical setting who received informal and unstructured individual education during patient encounters. A t-test was executed between the formal ADA certified education sample and the informal sample's SCI-R individual scores. A second t-test was performed between the two samples' SCI-R mean scores.ResultsA t-test determined no statistically significant difference between the formal ADA structured education and informal education samples' SCI-R individual scores. There was not a statistically significant difference between the samples' SCI-R mean scores.DiscussionThe study results suggest that there are not superior DSME settings and instructional approaches.