The main associations of diabetes and experts in the field have met this Wednesday, on the occasion of health day, to denounce the lack of nursing personnel specialized in therapeutic education of this and other chronic diseases.During this day, we have tried to raise awareness about the need to make a change in the Spanish public health model, which is not aimed at treating chronic patients.
Several of the organizations denounce that the main axis to combat type 2 diabetes is in therapeutic education in adults, which normally performs the nursing profession.However, as Mercedes Galindo says, an advisor to therapeutic education of the Diabetes Foundation (FD), "there are no more than 200 specialized nurses in this area throughout Spain, and the number of professionals is insufficient."In addition, the need for specific nursing training has been claimed."There is no concrete degree, there is only one health education master who has begun to teach this year," Galindo explains.
The role of this educating nurse would be essential to convey the importance of treatment, food and lifestyle."In this way, the patient will have real information and may be involved in his pathology. It will have less complications, or they will appear longer," explains Andoni Lorenzo, president of the Spanish Diabetes Federation (Fede).
The demands focus on creating a specific accreditation in this area, or on which more places are enabled in public health for this specialty.According to Galindo, "in most cases, these nurses are destined to the education of children with type 1 diabetes, but more resources are also needed in the care of type 2 diabetes in adults, where most of the majority ofthe cases ".
The time dedicated by patient in Spain in public health is an average of seven minutes.Lorenzo believes that "with diabetes it cannot be so, so the role of nursing is essential.""In the case of a child, knowledge is basic, it has been explaining them for a while, and it cannot be a hurried teaching," says Galindo.
It is also important to the presence of nurses in the field of school, to bring awareness and education about this disease to educational centers.Lorenzo, argues that "there are schools in which there is no caregiver for chronic pathologies."The Community of Madrid has an agreement that forces you to have nursing personnel in the centers where there is a child with a chronic pathology.Despite this, those affected denounce that it is not.Lorenzo says that "most autonomous communities have nothing, except eight that only have action protocols, but not health personnel."Among these communities are the Basque Country, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia or Extremadura.
Through these forms of prevention, it would also be possible to reduce the public spending generated by this pathology.12% of the world health expenditure corresponds to diabetes."That cost is mainly due to complications, and therefore we must avoid them," says Edelmiro Menéndez, president of the Spanish Diabetes Society (SED)."Hypoglycemia costs 2,000 euros in the emergency room, and could be avoided with a good education," Galindo says.
Source: The world
