Nursing Guidelines for Diabetic Foot Ulcer Care: An Intervention Study

Abstract

Background: Diabetic ulceration disturbs the daily life of patients and increases their psychological distress. Aims: The main aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of a nursing guidelines intervention in improving diabetic ulcers. Subjects and method: The study carried out of the vascular outpatient clinic atAlharar hospital, ZagazigSharkia governorate using quasi experimental research design with pre-post assessment on adult’s diabetic patients suffering from diabetic foot ulcer.  The first part for demographic characteristics of patients, the second part was diabetic details and the third was for recording body weight and height. Results: Patient age ranged between 35 and 80 years, most by males (63.3%), (71.7%) illustrates half of them (50%) working, (75%) were rural residents and the majority of patients were either over weight or above, (48.3%), (35%); respectively, approximately two-fifth of them (38.3%) were smoking.  The duration of ulcer was mostly (63.3%) less than one year. Sufficient improvement was resolved after the intervention in regular treatment and ulcer care P<0.001, significantly decrease from 346.6 mg/dL to 291.7 mg/dL. Random blood sugar after the intervention (P<0.001), statically significant positive weak correlation between the number ulcer and Wagner grade (n = 0.291). Conclusion and recommendation: The nursing guidelines applied to patients suffering from diabetic foot are effective in improving their diabetic foot ulcer grades with associated improvements in their blood sugar levels. The study recommends the use of the guidelines and related booklet in those settings should be trained in implementing to measure the long-term effect of such guidelines on patients, diabetic foot state and on their glycemic control.