Diabetes Management in Preoperative Hospitalized Patients: Improving Quality Measures on an Orthopedic Trauma and Surgical Unit

Objective: Implement nursing education for the staff nurses on an orthopedic trauma and medical surgical unit to improve diabetes management in preoperative patients. Design: Evidence -based practice/quality improvement. Setting/Local Problem: 33-bed orthopedic trauma and surgical unit. Participants: Staff nurses employed on an orthopedic trauma and surgical unit Interventions/Measurements. A pre- and post- was design with an embedded education module to assess for understanding. The aim of this was to improve preoperative diabetes education to have better glycemic control postoperatively and reduce the number of adverse events. Results: Nurses preintervention mean scores were 14.00 and 16.00 after the e-learning module. The educational module provided was statistically significant (pConclusion: The use of an e-learning module to educate staff nurses resulted in a significant increase in perioperative diabetes management knowledge. Nurses play a vital role in perioperative diabetes management and preventing adverse events. The use of e-learning modules has the potential to increase nurses’ knowledge base leading to better patient outcomes.