The Rotary Club of Tema in collaboration with Rotary Club of Hoppers Crossing, Melbourne, Australia organized a two-day workshop on diabetes care and management for private sector nurses and midwives at the Tema General Hospital.
President of Tema Rotary Club, Seth Otu-Larbi said, “Rotary is a service organization whose purpose is to bring business and professional leaders together to provide humanitarian service and advance goodwill and peace around the world’.
In that regard, he stated that the purpose of the workshop was to educate nurses/midwives on diabetics and their management and assist them to provide consistent patient-centered care to achieve better outcomes for patients living with diabetes.
A Diabetes Nurse Specialist from Premium Diabetes Education and Care Center (PDECC) at Community 20, Lashibi, Gifty Okanta Dade who was the facilitator said, “with the prevalence of diabetes now increasing at an alarming rate, care has become more challenging”.
According to her, inadequate care providers in relation to the level of increment of the disease has challenged the education and awareness of diabetic patients on how to manage it.
She explained that the area of diabetes care was previously the domain of Doctors but has now been taken over by nursing/ midwifery staff.
It has therefore become imperative that nurses/midwives develop a sound clinical understanding of the management of the disease to help patients manage them, she indicated.
Madam Dade further noted that the COVID-19 has also brought an urgent and important need to manage chronic and non-communicable diseases well hence the workshop has been helpful in that regard.
“A lot of private health institutions in the Tema area have been delivering diabetes care and management services to their patients living with the disease and there is no doubt that the workshop has enhanced their knowledge and practice”, she said.
She said the theme for this year’s International Diabetes Federation, “Diabetes: Nurses make the difference” had been a call on them to reinforce their commitment to help patients manage the disease.
Madam Dade further advised against negative lifestyles such as excessive alcohol intake and smoking.
