Supporting people with diabetes to self-monitor and self-care empowers individuals, can improve long-term health outcomes, and is being encouraged by the Australian College of Nursing during National Diabetes Week.
Australian College of Nursing (ACN) Chief Executive Officer, Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward FACN, said ACN had been vocal in its stance on people with diabetes patient self-management, and included this as one of five recommendations when joining the Choosing Wisely Australia campaign last year.
“People with diabetes who self-monitor and take carriage of their own care, with the support of highly-trained diabetes educators and nurses, are keeping a constant watch of their blood glucose levels to make sure they do not go too high or low.
“Glycaemic control is central to the management of diabetes. We know self-management is a valuable tool in reducing the incidence of complications, enhancing quality of life and reducing related health care costs.
“The Australian College of Nursing cannot condone the imposition of unnecessary blood glucose monitoring regimes that needlessly change a person’s routine, are random, low frequency and do not provide patients or health care professionals with information that enhances therapeutic goals.”
ACN is speaking out on self-management to coincide with National Diabetes Week, which runs from Sunday 9 July to Saturday 15 July. The theme of this year’s campaign is It’s About Time, which aims to highlight that it’s about time that we acted as a nation to detect diabetes earlier, and in turn, save lives.
“When we joined the Choosing Wisely Australia campaign last year, ACN and our members provided five key recommendations,” Adjunct Professor Ward explained.
“One of these recommendations was not restricting the ability of people with diabetes to perform their own blood glucose monitoring. We don’t believe a person’s monitoring routine should be changed without a reasonable clinical indication.”
Choosing Wisely Australia brings together health colleges, associations and societies with the aim of challenging the way we think about health care and questions the notion that ‘more is always better’.
