Emily Whitten
Effect of Diabetic Teaching on Patient
Comprehension

SchoolHoly Name High School • Cleveland, Ohio

ProgramPharmacy Internship

MentorStacey Preston, PharmD; Julie Falk, PharmD

DepartmentPharmacy, Marymount Hospital

mRI™: myRESEARCH illuminated

Hypothesis: Nearly 24 million people in the United States have diabetes. Diabetic teaching seeks to help diabetics understand this disease and why taking medicine, following a healthy diet, maintaining an active lifestyle, and other such measures are so important for their overall well-being. We hypothesized that diabetic teaching is effective on patient comprehension.

Methodology: A set of questions for before and after a diabetic teaching consult was developed. Whenever a physician ordered a diabetic teaching consult, the patient was asked for consent to assess his or her knowledge of diabetes. Before each consenting patient received diabetic teaching, an oral survey was given about topics pertaining to diabetes. Their answers were evaluated. After they had received diabetic teaching, the patients were surveyed again about topics related to their diabetes. The before and after results were compared in the form of charts and graphs to see how effective the diabetic teaching was.

Outcomes: Diabetic teaching proved to be effective on patient comprehension. Overall, after a teaching, patients knew more about diabetes than they had before they received the teaching.