Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

SELF-MANAGEMENT EDUCATION & SUPPORT: PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT| 11-101

respected (1). Motivational interviewing is especially useful for helping people who are in the precontemplation or contemplation stages as per the TTM model. It is designed to engage people who are resistant to, or ambivalent about, the process of change (2). Using the four general principles of motivational interviewing will facilitate the interview process. Refer to the content of this chapter, and Advanced Teaching/Learning Processes; Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People to Change Addictive Behaviours (3,4). • Examination and observation: Means of developing clear, concise examination and observation techniques can be found in any physical examination text, such as Bates’ Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking. • Records, reports, tests: All team members need access to consultant and specialist reports, as well as to current laboratory data. A shared electronic chart is desirable, but not yet readily available to most diabetes educators. ● A structured assessment form: Choose a form specific to a diabetes assessment that best fits your philosophy or approach to care. A truly expert educator will use the form only to record information, not to guide the process or interview. The individual and his or her family should guide the process. ● A record of the composition of the family: This can be obtained using a genogram (a pictorial description of the family tree). This visual, diagrammatic tool gives you information about the structure of, and critical health events experienced by, the person/family (5). ● A diabetes concerns assessment form: Table 2 can be used to support patient-centred care. It addresses the broader issues of life with diabetes that go beyond BG results and adjusting insulin (6). Guidelines for using the Diabetes Care Concerns Assessment for individuals and groups are available online from the University of Michigan Health System, Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center. Critical components One functional assessment model used among health-care professionals, developed by Gordon (7), uses information gathered in 11 categories. This model is used in practical application exercises 1 to 11 to organize the collection of data about the person with diabetes. The left column outlines the information that should be collected in each Tools Tools for obtaining information include the following: