First Advisor

Henry, Melissa L.

Date Created

7-2016

Abstract

Diabetic foot ulcers are a common health complication in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Evidence demonstrates the most effective method of reducing the development of such complication is early screening and detection of the disease. Nevertheless, regular foot screenings are not a common occurrence among patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus in outpatient settings in Puerto Rico. A nurse-led diabetic foot screening clinic was developed in a local outpatient clinic. The project objective was to implement a foot screening protocol for all Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients age 18 years or older as a method of preventing the development of a diabetic foot ulcer. In addition, this project helped detect a patient’s risk level of developing diabetic foot ulcers and provided patients with foot care management education as part of their yearly checkup. The implementation of the nurse-led diabetic foot screening was piloted amongst a small group of patients. The project was evaluated by utilizing Donabedian’s (2003) framework. Donabedian’s (2003) framework assisted in identifying advantages and disadvantages of implementing new healthcare activities in patient care. In this capstone project, various outcomes were evaluated before, during, and after the implementation of this project. The results demonstrated the need for a nurse-led diabetic foot screening iv clinic. The results of this project are not final since the project was not fully implemented and is considered a pilot study. Further work is needed to evaluate the viability of this protocol in other outpatient clinic settings to determine the most effective type of approach.

Keywords

Foot ulcers; Foot screening; Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Extent

151 pages

Local Identifiers

GarciaCapstone201607

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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