Week 1: Creating Educational Material for Diabetic Patients in the E.R.

Welcome to my Week 1 Senior Project Blog!

This week, I delved into the world of night shifts in the Emergency Room, and I observed the dedication needed to be a night shift healthcare worker.

In this blog, I will walk you through my journey of creating educational material for diabetes patients. Under my external advisor, Dr. Srinivas, I was able to create many drafts, and refine them to create final drafts.

For my diabetes educational sessions next week, I worked to create an infographic, handout, and comprehension questions.

Infographic:

For my infographic, I started off by spending a few hours this week researching diabetes through resources like the CDC and the American Diabetes Association. After researching, I narrowed my infographic to the following topics:

What is Diabetes

• Type 2 Diabetes
• Causes and Effects of Diabetes
• A1C Tests
• A1C Tests vs “Relative Risks for Complications”

With these topics in mind, I proceeded to add elements of big font, a colorful background, visual images and focused on adding comprehensible language for the patients reading this infographic.

While making this infographic, I had faced difficulty in finding graphs comparing A1C levels and the following complications: Cardiovascular Disease, Retinopathy, Nephropathy, and Neuropathy. To resolve this issue, I created my own graph combining two graphs I had found online. At the end, I listed definitions for these conditions for patients to refer to.

Handout:

In my handout, I focused on making information accessible for meal planning and fitness for diabetic patients. Through sources like the CDC and UCSF Health, I researched the “Plate Method”, a meal plan that includes balanced meals filled with starchy and non-starchy vegetables as well as carbohydrates, in which diabetic patients are recommended to follow. Additionally, I added a sample menu that diabetic patients can follow as a guide. On the back of the handout, I added a fitness section detailing examples of moderate-intensity activity that diabetic patients are recommended to engage in. Lastly, I included types of exercises that diabetic patients should implement such as aerobic exercise and resistance exercise (strength training).

Comprehension Questions:

For my comprehension questions, I created 5 questions to test the patients’ knowledge before the educational session and after the educational session. The questions included tests on knowledge about diabetes, A1C levels, relative risks and complications, and food & fitness. I refined these questions to be easily understood and digestible.

As I prepare to implement these educational resources in the E.R. next week, I am eager to interact with patients and teach my first educational session next week.

Stay tuned for more updates on my work in the E.R.!