Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

SELF-MANAGEMENT EDUCATION & SUPPORT: PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT| 11-99

APPENDIX C

Assessment: Basic principles A comprehensive and accurate patient assessment is fundamental to developing and implementing an appropriate, individualized plan of action. It is also the most complex part of the teaching/learning process, requiring the use of all your knowledge and skills. This appendix has, therefore, been placed at the end of the basic education plan; it encourages you to reflect on each aspect of the assessment, review the underlying rationale and consider the implications for the SME plan that you will formulate as you and your patients engage in the assessment process. The assessment of individuals with diabetes, like the assessment of individuals with any other health condition, should identify physical, social and emotional influences, and it requires expertise in all of these areas. However, the educational assessment has a further purpose: to set the stage for learning and behaviour change. In this regard, the assessment process should also be a therapeutic one and lay the foundations for a trusting, helping relationship between you and the individual. It, therefore, requires expert communication and counselling skills. The knowledge you gain from the assessment will help you determine the person’s stage of readiness to learn and identify their learning style. In addition, a medical history will review past and present glycemic control, determine the presence or absence of diabetes-related complications and point to lifestyle, cultural, psychosocial, educational and economic factors that will influence diabetes management. We will discuss two major types of assessments: the functional or medical model assessment and the psychosociocultural or educational assessment. Health professionals from different disciplines should tailor assessments to their scope of practice and the nature of their interaction with the person/family with diabetes, as well as to meet the specific purposes and potential use of the assessment. It is imperative to consider the individuality of each patient in your assessment and to view their situation in the context of their lives.

Functional assessment Purpose The traditional purpose of a functional/medical assessment is as follows: • To discover the presence of disease.