Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The rising incidence of diabetes mellitus type 2 in Albania intensifies the need for effective health education for diabetes risk factors reduction among nurses and other health care practitioners.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a description of nurses’ knowledge about, attitudes toward, practice behaviors related to Diabetes mellitus type 2 risk reduction.

Methods: We surveyed 50 primary care nurses in 10 health centers in northwestern Albania located in two cities in Lezhe and Shkoder). The data was collected over five weeks and was analyzed using descriptive analysis.

Results: The majority of the surveyed nurses could identify common risk factors for diabetes type 2 and had positive attitudes toward diabetes risk reduction.

However, <62% of the respondents could correctly answer questions about evidence-based recommendations for diabetes mellitus type 2 risk reduction. This sample of albanian nursing professionals lacked knowledge critical to providing guidance to individuals with or at risk for diabetes.

Conclusions: However this is a small scale study and further investigation need to be done.

More intensive and creative approaches to the education of nursing professionals regarding diabetes mellitus type 2 risk factors reduction are recommended.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus type 2, nurses, education, Albania.