Effect of Educational Guidelines on Diabetic Patients' Knowledge, Attitude, and Self-Efficacy Regarding Use of Artificial Pancreas

Abstract

Context: Artificial pancreas has a beneficial effect on controlling blood glucose levels. Nurses play a crucial role in helping diabetic patients through educational guidelines that increase their knowledge and improve their attitude and self-efficacy regarding the use of artificial pancreas as a new technology to help continuously control blood glucose levels. Aim: to evaluate the effect of educational guidelines on diabetic patients' knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy regarding using artificial pancreas. Methods: A quasi-experimental study design (pre/post-test) was used to achieve the aim of this study. The study was conducted in the medical department and outpatient medical clinic at Benha University Hospital. A purposive sample of 100 adult patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus were admitted to the mentioned setting during the study period. Three tools were used. Patients' Assessment Questionnaire comprises two parts: Patients' personal data and health history of the disease and patients' knowledge assessment. Patients' attitude Rating Scale regarding the use of the artificial pancreas, and Self-Efficacy Scale. Results: The result reported a significant difference in the satisfactory knowledge level of patients from 15% pre-educational guidelines to 57% post-educational guidelines. Significant differences in the total level of positive attitude increased from 22.0% pre-educational guidelines to 63.0% post-guidelines, and significant differences between the mean self-efficacy scores of the studied patients regarding their perception and confidence in the ability to use the artificial pancreas as it increased from 1.8±0.7 pre to 3.1±0.4 post the educational guidelines implementation. Conclusion: Educational guidelines have a positive effect on improving diabetic patients' knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy regarding the use of artificial pancreas. The study recommends implementing ongoing educational programs and workshops for diabetic patients on artificial pancreas.