Nurses' Thoughts on Patients With Poorly Controlled Diabetes

Abstract

　　This study sought to clarify nurses' thoughts on the patient–nurse relationship and nursing care for patients with poorly controlled diabetes and to explore the relationship between them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 nurses, and the interview data were qualitatively and inductively analyzed. The results of the analysis revealed five thoughts on the patient–nurse relationship and six thoughts on nursing care for patients with poorly controlled diabetes. The nurses’ thoughts on the patient–nurse relationship where they wanted patients to follow their instructions, wanted to avoid patients who hurt their feelings, and wanted to receive positive evaluations as a nurse from both patients and other health care providers were connected with the nurses’ following thoughts on nursing care for patients with poorly controlled diabetes: diabetes is a controllable disease, its deterioration is attributable to patients’ lack of self-care, and caring for such patients is futile. On the other hand, the nurses’ thoughts on the patient–nurse relationship where they wanted to respect patients’ dignity and for patients to understand their sincerity were connected with the following thoughts on nursing care for patients with poorly controlled diabetes: strong hope that their patients’ conditions would improve and diabetes is a difficult disease to live with. However, repeated hospitalization of patients led the nurses to think that it was difficult to understand the patients’ thoughts. The results of this study suggest the importance of respecting patients’ dignity in nursing care for patients with poorly controlled diabetes.