Survey on Counseling Services Performed by Nursing Professionals for Diabetic Outpatients Not Using Insulin in Japan

Abstract

To clarify the actual conditions under which counseling services are performed by nursing professionals in Japan for diabetic outpatients not using insulin, a postal survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire.

The subjects of the survey consisted of nursing professionals(nurses, public health nurses, midwives, and jyun-kangoshi)who worked at 179 hospitals containing more than 200 beds, acted as counselors in outpatient clinics, and who spent more than 30 minutes with each patient.

Overall, 70.1 % of the nursing professionals who responded to the survey had worked in an outpatient clinic for more than 10 years, and 28.5 % held administrative positions. This finding indicates that counseling requires a high level of skill and relevant clinical experiences.

In hospitals where nursing professionals counseled outpatients with diabetes, the nurses accounted for 72.1 % of the medical team for diabetes. This finding suggests that nursing professionals play an important role in the medical teams that are responsible for the management of diabetes.

The fact that most nursing professionals counseled their patients while performing other work suggests that consultation systems engaging nursing professionals have not been established in many hospitals in Japan.

Many nursing professionals used a single room(not specifically for counseling purposes)to counsel patients to assure patient's privacy.

Nursing professionals tended to counsel outpatients who also saw a physician specializing in diabetes or who had been the hospital before. However, only a few diabetic patients who were seeing other specialist were counseled by the nursing professionals. Nevertheless, such patients may also be in need of counseling.