Developing more efficient and reliable methods of monitoring Type 2 Diabetes patients

Developing a Change Project – Part I

Lucreshia Jackson

American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences

SIM432PE

19th September 2022

Developing a Change Project – Part I

Topic: Developing more efficient and reliable methods of monitoring Type 2 Diabetes patients

Type 2 Diabetes is a treatable but dangerous disease that results from our living habits and manifests as low insulin, high sugar in the blood, and low insulin resistance. This illness does not entail hospitalization unless it is a severe case with most patients continuing with their daily lives (Jackson et al., 2021). Its symptoms are usually not apparent to observers that are untrained and they come slowly preventing people from noticing. People can therefore be trained to notice and measure the symptoms but they remain to be imperfect failing to see any causes of alarm. Due to this medical workers are currently trying to come up with more efficient and reliable methods to monitor patients with this condition.

Most patients with this disease live their lives with certain accommodations that manage their conditions, which include diet and lifestyle changes alongside other specific medications. Conversely, these patients’ symptoms require monitoring with professionals being preferred for the patients for this purpose (Jackson et al., 2021). Recently, this issue is being solved through regular clinic visits, where specialist receives the patients and assesses their conditions. This condition however takes a lot of effort and time from both parts of the patients and the medical workers. The latter have to take some time away from their patients, with the former having to travel to the clinics waiting to be assessed. Due to the recent advances in technology, such inefficient approaches are outdated and therefore require to be replaced.

This topic is relevant as we still experience it in our health clinic where it has been difficult to monitor the increased number of patients with Type 2 diabetes. Diabetic patients usually require ongoing treatment and ongoing monitoring. Treating and monitoring our patients has been consuming our time and efforts and therefore it has been difficult to provide ongoing treatment and ongoing monitoring to our patients. This has led to some of our patients developing more serious complications caused by this disease such as dementia, vision problems, and kidney complications (Mitri, 2019). It has also been a problem for our medical staff whose time has had to take a lot of effort and time to our patients who require regular monitoring. This project therefore will provide an alternative approach that will help in remote monitoring our patients who do not need hospitalization.

Stakeholders are the entities that perform a role in the performance and health of an organization or are affected by an organization (Marquis & Houston, 2021). Our health clinic, therefore, has its stakeholders who are internal and external. The external stakeholders include our instructor, patients, Noble cure medical equipment company, and professional healthcare solutions company. The internal stakeholders include the medical staff, volunteers, and donors.

This project will therefore offer some benefits to our healthcare entity. The new method of treating and monitoring our patients’ Type 2 diabetes will improve our current diabetes care and will also provide more opportunities for other new treatments that will enhance the quality of life of our patients further. The project will also reduce overcrowding at our facility as patients can be able to receive care remotely and therefore would not require availing themselves at the facility for regular checkups and monitoring. The facility will also benefit as there will not be much time for our medical staff and physicians to consume more time attending to our remote patients and there will be enough time to attend to other patients, therefore, improving our healthcare delivery. There will be reduced costs to the facility that comes from regular treatment and monitoring of our patients remotely.

The project will also benefit our stakeholders. The external stakeholders such as the patients will no longer require coming to our facility since they can receive care remotely and also their outcomes will be improved. The project would also benefit the instructor, Noble cure medical equipment company, and professional healthcare solutions company since they will be able to practice their knowledge and skills to the proposed change to our facility. The internal stakeholders such as the medical staff and physicians would benefit the more time they would not require to administer regular remote treatments to the patients which consumes much time and effort. They will also be able to showcase their skills and expertise in other medical fields since not much time will be required to attend to patients remotely.

The project will also have some challenges for the stakeholders. The medical staff and physicians will have some of their skills and knowledge consumed by the new technology. The facility will also require so much capital to purchase and implement the new technology into its operations. Some patients might also have some difficulties in applying the new technology to regularly check themselves. Therefore, this project will require to provide the answers to these challenges.

References

Jackson, M. A., Ahmann, A., & Shah, V. N. (2021). Type 2 diabetes and the use of real-time continuous glucose monitoring. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, 23(S1), S-27.

Mitri, J., Yusof, B. N. M., Maryniuk, M., Schrager, C., Hamdy, O., & Salsberg, V. (2019). Dairy intake and type 2 diabetes risk factors: a narrative review. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, 13(5), 2879-2887.

Read Chapters 1-3 In Marquis, B.L. & Huston, C.J. (2021). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Read Chapters 7-10 In Marquis, B.L. & Huston, C.J. (2021). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.