Nurses’ knowledge of the management of diabetic patients at Juba Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycaemia and is a major health problem. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimated that there were 425 million people with diabetes in the world in 2017 with the number rising most rapidly in middle- and low-income countries. The prevalence of DM in Juba City in 2017 was reported to be 11.8%.

Objective: To assess nurses’ knowledge of the management of diabetic patients and factors associated with it in Juba Teaching Hospital - the only referral hospital in South Sudan.

Method: This was descriptive cross-sectional study, carried out in March 2018, in which 40 nurses were randomly selected. Data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire and analysed using SPSS version 20 for Windows software.

Results: Of the 40 participants 31(77.5%) were females. The mean age was 35.6±10.7 years and median work experience was 9 years and 10 months; overall 57.6% of the participants correctly answered the questions on diabetic care. The factors cited for poor management of diabetic patients included lack of hospital guidelines (47.5%), insufficient salary to motivate staff (77.5%), inadequate nurse to patient ratio for good patient care (60.0%), and no resources for special training (57.5%).

Conclusion: Many nurses in JTH have inadequate knowledge for diabetic management and most are interested in receiving more training.

Keywords: Nurse, knowledge, management of diabetes, South Sudan