Week 0: An Introduction to Diabetes Education

Hi, my name is Aashirya, and welcome to my Week 1 Senior Project Blog! In this first blog, I will go over some background information, details of my project, and an introduction to my advisors. 

*Photo sourced from Adobe Stock Photos

According to the American College of Preventive Medicine, preventive medicine promotes preventive health care to improve patient well-being. The goal is to ultimately prevent disease, disability, and death. Specifically for diabetes, the eight leading cause of death in the United States, preventive medicine is significant to prevent further complications. My interest in diabetes education sparked when I was young, where I observed the sense of normalcy of diabetes being a common disease in many families. I watched as my grandparents had to prick themselves with needles to regularly monitor themselves and their sugar levels. After shadowing an emergency physician, I started to think about the perspective of the patients, how knowledgeable they were about their own case of diabetes and whether they were taking steps to prevent further complications and following a regular routine. I want diabetic patients to understand the types of diabetes, what A1C tests are, and steps to control their blood sugar including meal planning and monitoring their glucose levels. This study equips physicians with data to gauge patients’ knowledge of their personal involvement in their treatment plan, and will allow them to take action in personalizing their treatment plans and role of an educator for preventive medicine.  

*Photo sourced from Adobe Stock Photos

In this project, I will randomly select a few patients with various conditions of diabetes and conduct diabetic education and management educational sessions. During the appointment, I will be going over their A1C test results, blood glucose monitoring, and general tips regarding nutrition and exercise. I will be lecturing for around 10 minutes, and will be asking 4 – 5 comprehension questions right after in the same appointment room. In the following day, I will be sending out a survey measuring the literacy/comprehension that diabetic patients had of the educational material in my lecture and whether they have an increased understanding of how to look after themselves as diabetic patients and new steps they will take to avoid new complications. Incorporating the BASICS program at the Washington Hospital Diabetes Outpatient center in my research, a comprehensive curriculum that covers everything a person with diabetes needs to know to live successfully with diabetes, I hope to raise awareness about diabetes and foster open communication between patients and their physicians.

 For this project, my internal advisor is Ms. Parker, and my external advisor is Dr. Srinivas. Dr. Srinivas is an emergency physician at Washington Hospital Healthcare System who has over 12 years of experience in emergency medicine.

For my plan next week, I aim to read scientific material on preventive medicine in the curative medicine setting, and on diabetes education and management. I will start preparing the necessary diabetic education and management lesson plan prior to my first shift  as well as the survey to be presented to diabetic patients. 

Thank you for reading, and stay safe and healthy out there!