The role of the Diabetes Specialist Nurse

Abstract

The following article focuses upon the essential role of the Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN) in the care and management of patients with diabetes. The author is a DSN in the United Kingdom (UK), where the specialist nursing role has become a fundamental and crucial part of the diabetes multidisciplinary team (MDT) and service. The author draws upon her own experiences within the UK as a DSN and discusses ways in which the role could prove advantageous for a low income country such as South Sudan. The article considers key targets for developing countries and how the DSN role could help them to be achieved.

There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Global statistics often do not differentiate between the two, therefore in this article the author refers to both types under the general term of ‘diabetes’. There is, however, a greater emphasis placed upon type 2.

Keywords: Role, Diabetes, Specialist, Nurse, DSN