Geriatric Diabetes Education

Implementing Diabetes Education in Geriatric unit
The diabetes prevalence in the USA is placed at 9.4% which accounts for 30.3 million Americans as of 2015. This statistics goes even higher with increase in the age bracket where 12.2% of Americans above 18 years old are diabetic. The numbers are even grimmer as the age increases among the aged where 25.2% of Americans above 65 years are said to be diabetic according to CDC (2017). The geriatric unit mostly hosts patients of the age of 65 years. These are patients who are predisposed to various life limiting conditions, immobility, psychiatric problems and other illnesses. Apparently diabetes has emerged as one of the main challenges that the aged have to deal with all the way into the geriatric unit. It is apparent that diabetes presents significant challenges in managing them for the elderly patients. The aged diabetes patients often complain of challenges of the cost of managing diabetes, access to medication, competing priorities and challenges of adherence to their medication.
From the above statistics, it is apparent that most of the elderly persons hosted in the elderly homes will be diabetic. That will be the most common medical condition within the geriatric unit. Bearing the medical challenges and the physical challenges that the elderly face within the geriatric unit, it is important that their lives are made bearable within these facilities. One of the most significant changes that the facilities can undertake is to ensure the staff members are properly trained in how to handle the diabetic old patients and how they can facilitate the quick access and efficient access to their mediation. This is the single most important aspect of change that if properly implemented in the geriatric unit of focus then it can significantly impact on the lives of the ole people who are housed in these units.
There are various reasons for undertaking the training for the nurses and employees working within the geriatric units with the elderly. One very obvious reason is the issue of compliance with the regulations of the responsible agencies as stated in each state within its own regulations. It is not everyone who wants to work within the units of the elderly is allowed to work but those who are specifically trained for the job and are evaluated by the concerned bodies to ensure strict compliance with the regulations guiding the running of the institutions.
The second reason as to why the training is essential is to ensure the full satisfaction of the clients who are the sole reason why the institutions are established. The nurses and the other employees within these units have the sole mandate to ensure the welfare of the elderly, who may be facing physical and psychiatric challenges are well taken care of. The ratings that the unit will get at any given point of time will be primarily from the clients who use the facility, then the guardians who brought them to that facility. If these two are offered or see to be getting substandard services, there is high likelihood that they will transfer to other facilities. This may mean the closure of the affected unit or significant regulatory repercussions from the agencies in charge. The standard and satisfactory services can only be offered by well trained staff members.
Such a significant change is often not easy to implement since it will be met with resistance from most of the people who are supposed to implement that change. This means there is need to have leadership that will employ a leadership approach which will sail the change through the resistance. The top priority for any leader in the process of change is the followers’ positive reaction to change. According to the research conducted among 351 participants from two Danish organizations, the data analysis found out that the leadership style that resounded best with employees during change process was transformational leadership (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2018).
From the above findings, it follows that the leadership style that fits best this change process in the elderly homes is the transformational leadership in order to ensure the requisite training is done and effectively undertaken. This style of leadership is one where the leader works with the junior staff members of the subordinate staff to first make out or identify the change that is needed, then he creates a vision that will guide them towards the needed and identified change, then he will guide the change through inspiration and he will then implement the change hand in hand with the subordinate staff members who are committed to the change (McCloskey M.W., 2018). This is the best approach that I can use in change implementation within the geriatric unit I am base at to ensure that all the members of staff therein are well trained in handling diabetic old people. I will involve the members of staff from the very start of the change process so that they can feel they own the idea and the process of implementing the idea. Since the knowledge on managing diabetic old people is very essential for all the employees, I will sue all possible avenues to inspire commitment in all employees and we collectively formulate a vision that will be for out unit and commit to it to the very end.
Role of professional nurse as a change agent
Within an institution like the homes for the elderly, the professional nurses are often looked up to as change agents by most of the employees. They represent the highest point of reference and the ideal that should be emulated by the other employees. Hence, the nurse will have to play key roles in the motivation, morale building, employee satisfaction and job enrichment for the other employees within the institution.
Achieving high standards of care for the elderly people in the unit is the role of the nurse manager. He therefore needs o have skills and the ability to motivate and develop staff. The biggest part of any leadership is motivating the staff that he works with. This is particularly important when there is change process underway as is the case here. The professional nurse manager here will strive to bolster motivation through regularly asking for feedback from the staff members, involving the other nurses and employees in the leadership of the unit, set up mutual understanding among the employees and yourself and commitment to positive communicating as the best approaches to ensuring a motivated staff towards change (Cardensa H., 2018).
The ability to inspire morale among the staff members a nurse works with is a major sign of good leadership and sound managerial skills. The nurse needs to bolster performance among the employees through encouraging the moral-boosting qualities of caring, support and balance among the staff members to boost retention of the members of staff and give the employees that feeling of renewal at work. This is important especially in implementing change since it gives the employees that feeling of belonging, interest in their work and the will to keep trying out new innovative solutions to tackle the challenges that may be emerging (Stapleton et.al., 2007).
A professional nurse as a change agent must also be concerned about and contribute positively towards employee satisfaction. There are several approaches that the nurse manager ca n take in ensuring satisfaction among his subordinates in facilities such as the geriatric units, these include the forming of connection with the juniors or the employees, being present and engaged together with them at work, listening to the views and grievances of the employees however insignificant they may seem and not just listening to the answers you are looking for. The nurse manager also needs to involve the employee in decision making, he has to be clear and consistent with the employees and not changing positions every other time. The nurse manager also needs to select good leaders among the employees and entrust them with overseeing the smaller assignments like shift supervisions, this will go a long way in boosting the levels of satisfaction of employees with their (Wadsworth B., 2015).
The nurse manager also needs to ensure employees job enrichment is taken care of the employees need to have the feeling that their jobs meet their emotional, psychological and physical needs. The enrichment at work often leads to higher rates of job satisfaction and consequently better performance which is a highly needed aspect in the case of diabetic elderly people in a care home.
The motivation theory that will be used in this particular case will be the Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory. Here, the theory postulates that there are two sets of issues that affect the motivation and satisfaction of employees; the motivator factor and the hygiene factors. The motivator factors were seen to be the factors that led to satisfaction of the employee and motivated them to work harder. The hygiene factors are the issues that led to dissatisfaction like the salary issue, benefits, the company policies, relationship with the managers and colleagues (Leadership-Central, 2016). This is the best theory for my use in this case since I will try to give positive reinforcement to the motivator factors and at the same time use the hygiene factors that I shall have noticed to make corrections and significantly improve them in order to achieve the ultimate aim of implementing the necessary changes in the training of all employees in the unit on how to handle diabetes patients.
In the actual implementation of the change within the unit, I will greatly rely on the Kotter’s 8 step change Model to ensure each employee buys into the idea of having frequent trainings on how to handle old people with diabetes. This model incorporates 8 steps that can be followed systematically to implement change with least resistance (Kotter International, 2017), the first step being creating urgency among the employees on the need to have the training done as soon as I practicable. Then the next step is to form a powerful coalition of people whom I have convinced that the change is necessary. I will identify key leaders or opinion leaders in different sections of the unit then emotionally appeal to them over the need to have this coalition for the change. The next step will be to create a vision for the change within the unit that will be seen to be beneficial to all the employees despite the cadre. Then the fourth step will be to communicate the vision to each person I will have a chance to talk to within the unit. The next step is to remove any obstacles that I shall have identified in the course of trying to implement the change. Step six will be to create short-term wins since people like victory, I shall show them what so far we have achieved in the change process so that they can buy more into the idea. Step seven will be for me to buildon the change and not to assume too early to have achieved the employees embracing of the training but to ensure it is well founded and the training starts in various departments as I analyzed the good things that have happened and the wrongs that need o be corrected. Last step is for me to anchor these changes into the culture of the organization such that the regular trainings are actually scheduled for in an annual manner and not just one time off event.


References
CDC, (2017). National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2017 Estimates of Diabetes and Its Burden in the United States. Retrieved May11, 2018 from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf
Cardensa H., (2018). Strategies to Motivate Staff Nurses. Retrieved May11, 2018 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/strategies-motivate-staff-nurses-15427.html
Emerald Publishing Limited, (2018). Leadership style and the process of organizational change. Retrieved May11, 2018 from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/LODJ-11-2012-0155
Leadership-Central, (2016). Two factor Theory. Retrieved May11, 2018 from http://www.leadership-central.com/two-factor-theory.html#axzz5FKZlmMWo
McCloskey M.W., (2018). What is Transformational Leadership. Retrieved May11, 2018 from http://people.bethel.edu/~pferris/otcommon/TransformationalLeadership.pdf
Kotter International, (2017). 8 Steps to Accelerating Change. Retrieved May11, 2018 from https://www.kotterinc.com/wp-content/uploads/background-photos/8-Steps-for-Accelerating-Change-eBook.pdf
Stapleton et.al., (2007). Boosting Morale and Improving Performance in the nursing setting. Retrieved May11, 2018 from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ac0e/09a176a0345f3cadc5df30a2ce4144d40d46.pdf
Wadsworth B., (2015). A Study of the Nurse Manager’s Impact on Staff Engagement & Quality. Retrieved May11, 2018 from https://ponl.net/resources/Documents/A%20Study%20of%20the%20Nurse%20Manager's%20Impact%20on%20Staff%20Engagement%20and%20Quality.pdf