School nursing, a specialized practice of nursing, protects and promotes student health, facilitates optimal development, and advances academic success, so preventing chronic illness such as type 2 diabetes is the educational need being address, and providing better culturally appropriate intervention tailored for minorities (CDC, 2015).
School nurses, grounded in ethical and evidence-based practice, are the leaders who bridge health care and education, provide care coordination, advocate for quality student-centered care, and collaborate to design systems that allow individuals and communities to develop their full potentials (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2015).
The chronic nature of diabetes underscores the importance of self-management education that promotes behavior skills that are necessary to optimize quality of life. Diabetes educators recognize that the most effective approach to patient education is individualized to the needs of each person with diabetes (AADE, 2015).
The proposed solution to preventing diabetes through culturally appropriate preventive programs is the steps toward providing sensitive and competent diabetes education (AADE, 2015). One way in addressing the issue is to deliver health information based on ethnic/cultural, norms, values, social beliefs, historical, environmental factors unique to specific population (AADE, 2015).
The nurse in a school clinic needs knowledge and ability to work with culturally diverse population irrespective of language, customs, beliefs, values, communications, and actions of people according to race and ethnicity (AADE, 2015).
Since first envisioning the EBP project I have changed my ideas with age of my clinics, since some students can be very young, with expanding beyond racial, ethnic and religious sensitivity to further individualization based on age-appropriate and socio-economic considerations.
Seeing the amount of students affected by diabetes, and the high number of minority groups that are affected by diabetes at significantly greater rates when compared to non-Hispanic white Americans for reasons that are multidimensional, gives me a need in the school setting to try and change practice to address the need.
American Association of Diabetes Educators [AADE]. (2015). Cultural Considerations in Diabetes Education. Retrieved from Center of Disease
Control and Prevention [CDC]. (2015). Use of Culturally Focused Theoretical Frameworks for Adapting Diabetes Prevention Programs.