Final Project-The Story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Final Project-The Story - Essay Example Such policies should also define stakeholders who will be held accountable on the progress, success or failure of the initiative. Inevitably, policy makers, physicians, nurses, nursing bodies, educators, patients, insurance firms and state authorities must collaborate to bring diabetes under control. The most effective control measure would be the prevention of the occurrence of new cases, while at the same time controlling and managing the condition among those already living with it (Davies, Dixon & Currie, 2001). The role of educators, therefore, becomes a key emphasis of the policy making procedure. This becomes a key issue because a 20 year old patient representing a diagnosis was interviewed for the project and confirmed not having been sufficiently informed on the necessity of a healthy lifestyle in the prevention and treatment of diabetes. This, in turn, means that the role of diabetes educators is not sufficiently felt in society, creating a knowledge gap. This issue is link ed to nursing because nurses have the abstract information on patient care and can contribute significantly towards formulating policies that will effectively curb the growing numbers of diabetic cases. Being the ones closest to patients in terms of provision of care, they are in a better position to know what advice needs to be given in the prevention and control the problem. Therefore, their role is significant in promoting the initiative through providing evidence-based and up-to-date facts about education and care in diabetes (Davies, Dixon & Currie, 2001). This essay will discuss the problem, the policy and political procedures and provide a concluding solution. Policy Analysis The subject of diabetes has faced numerous policy challenges. The American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) pointed out that at some time, when citizens were diagnosed with diabetes, access to life insurance available in their states became unaffordable and even sometimes unavailable (Oliver & Mo ssialos, 2012). The reason was that federal law permitted life insurance firms to operate on policies that rated or charged a premium basing on the health status of applicants. Essentially, such plans allowed the insurance companies to deny an applicant the sought cover depending on their health status. Even so, patients requiring access to diabetes educators require a physician’s referral in order to receive the services (Peeples & Austin, 2007). This poses another policy challenge in the management of diabetes. Some physicians may not be giving the referrals as a measure to safeguard their revenue sources, and even if they did, the number of available educators is not sufficient to handle them. On the other hand, without a physician’s referral, the services of an educator are not among the covered benefits of insurance. According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), diabetes at any stage needs round-the-clock management to alleviate long term complications ass ociated with hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. Within the learning environment, levels of blood sugar not within the target range will interfere with the learning ability of a student. Non-diabetic students must be taught healthy lifestyles to avoid it, while the diabetic ones should have the ability to check and respond to blood glucose levels accordingly. Although some may handle the routine independently, others, due to developmental level or