Development of a Care System for Diabetic Patients with Hyperglycemia and Home-Ward Care: Dam Phra Sub-district Health Promoting Hospital, Ubon Ratchathani Province

Abstract

Hyperglycemia can lead to fatalities. Determining blood sugar levels for effective treatment help the patients to control their blood sugar. This research and development objectives: 1) Study of the existing situation, 2) development of a system for managing patients with high blood sugar, and 3) the evaluation of the developed system. The samples included 1) 11 public health personnel, 2) 65 village health volunteers (VHVs), and 3) 84 diabetic patients. Research tools includes 1) group discussion meetings questions, 2) the high blood sugar patient care system with data triangulation, 3) a Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire for VHVs with a KR-20 reliability coefficient of 0.84, and 4) the Perception of Self-care Questionnaire with reliability Cronbach's coefficient alpha of 0.91. Instruments 1), 3), and 4) had an average index of item objective congruence of 1. The research findings: 1) two cases of patients with high blood sugar levels over 300 mg/dl received home-ward care; 2) a system for managing diabetic patients with high blood sugar and home-ward care was developed; 3) after training, VHVs had significantly higher knowledge scores (M = 18.65, SD = 0.53) compared to before training (M = 12.72, SD = 0.98), t(64) = 6.32, p < .001, d = 0.71, and after using the care system, the patients had higher perceived self-efficacy score (M = 4.54, SD = 0.19) compared to before using the system (M = 3.74, SD = 0.43), t(83) = 42.82, p < .001, d = 4.36 and their hemoglobin A1c levels (HbA1c) (M = 12.03, SD = 3.59) were lower compared to before using the system (M = 10.63, SD = 2.42), t(83) = 4.06, p < .001, d = 1.30, at statistically significant levels. Furthermore, diabetic patient satisfaction was at its highest level, indicating that the high blood sugar patient care system was effective.