| Description |
Diabetes education continues to demonstrate improved outcomes in the increasing population of patients with diabetes. Despite research clearly supporting diabetes education, many adults in Utah do not access diabetes self-management education. Additionally, Hispanic adults have significant barriers to accessing language appropriate and culturally sensitive diabetes self-management. When accessed, appropriate diabetes education helps to improve outcomes of Hispanic adults. The purpose of this project was to improve access to language appropriate, and culturally sensitive diabetes education in a Hispanic population in rural Utah. The first objective was to assess the barriers in this specific population. Participants from the community completed a brief survey on their perception of barriers to access to diabetes education. After assessing the barriers to accessing diabetes self-management education in a sample of rural Hispanic patients, I developed a model of access appropriate for the population in collaboration with content experts and a diabetes education center. Barriers included location, cost, schedule, transportation, lack of time, etc. Local resources such as employers were valuable assets in overcoming barriers to access. Santaquin Pharmacy and Diabetes Center has a diabetes education program geographically located in the community for which the model of access has been developed. The program has experience providing language appropriate and culturally sensitive diabetes education to the Hispanic community. I partnered with this program to provide improved access to appropriate diabetes education to this Hispanic rural community. A model of access was created using an employer model of access. A diabetes education course could be held during lunch in the classroom of a local employer. A certified diabetes educator, fluent in Spanish and with experience in Hispanic culture, would conduct the class. A short satisfaction survey was created for the class to improve the model of access, should Santaquin Pharmacy and Diabetes Center decide to implement the model independent of this project. At the conclusion of the project, results will be disseminated. This project may help diabetes education programs improve access to similar populations. Through this project, I was able to successfully identify an appropriate diabetes education program to collaborate on the project, have assessed the barriers to access in the target population, and have developed a model of access to diabetes education. With the information and tools provided, a pilot class could easily be planned and carried out by a diabetes education program. An abstract has been written to disseminate findings of this project to the Utah American Association of Diabetes Educators Fall conference. An employer based diabetes education model of access to diabetes education may improve the health of Hispanic individuals with diabetes in a rural Utah community. It may also contribute to lower cost to community payers, individuals, employers, and to the local healthcare system. Other rural diabetes education programs may also benefit from this project. |
