Community Nurses Work for Diabetes Prevention

By Folarin Opakunle RN

One of the chronic illnesses that can be addressed in the community by the community health nurse is diabetes. This illness is on the rampage in our community and if the problem is not promptly address, we may see a decline in our workforce and overall economic growth as a result of the disease complications.

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness, and diabetic peripheral neuropathy is the underlying cause of non-traumatic lower-extremity amputation. Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of kidney failure requiring dialysis.

The community health nurse can treat clients in any of the three stages of preventive care from primary prevention care to secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention. This approach could help blunt the increase morbidity and mortality noted in our community. The primary prevention is done when the nurse educate clients on activities that can be done to prevent the disease from occurring such as proper diet, exercise, and weight loss. The primary prevention will target those who are vulnerable or those who have risk factors for developing the disease. In this stage, there is no clinical manifestation of the disease.

In the secondary preventive care, the community health nurse will screen for clients with clinical manifestation of the disease. The goal of the nurse in the stage is to have the clients get the required treatment to manage the disease.The final stage which is the tertiary prevention care, in this stage, the client has clinical manifestation, treatment is ongoing, and compliance is encouraged. The goal of the community health nurse in this stage is to maintain the clients at their highest level of functioning while preventing or minimize possible complication.

The job of community health care nurse in our community is very vital; therefore the nurses must understand the importance of cultural competency and adequately use a culturally based theory or model to guide their communication and assessment due to the diversity of our community.

References:

Clark, (2009). Community Health Nursing, 5th ed. Sudbury Mass:Pearson Publishing.

Note: This material was created by Folarin Opakunle RN with minor editing by Shirley Comer Rn. The content is intended as information only. Please consult your primary health care provider before beginning or changing your healthcare regimen.