Diabetes Specialist Nurses – future ready health coaches

This World Diabetes Day (November 14, 2020) with the theme ‘Diabetes: Nurses Make The Difference’ focuses on empowering Diabetes Specialist Nurses (DSNs) to improve patient outcomes and deliver cost-effective diabetes care. Today nurses are increasingly becoming ‘health coaches’ and in future, they will play a significant role in preventive medicine.

- Raelene Kambli

Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak happened in China, much attention has been given to people with diabetes because of poor prognosis in those with the infection. Initial reports were mainly on people with type 2 diabetes, although recent surveys have shown that individuals with type 1 diabetes are also at risk of severe COVID-19. Now, another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that there is a bidirectional relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes. The report says that diabetes is associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 as well as researchers find new-onset diabetes and severe metabolic complications of pre-existing diabetes, including diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolarity for which exceptionally high doses of insulin are warranted, have been observed in patients with COVID-19. These manifestations of diabetes pose challenges in clinical management and suggest complex pathophysiology of COVID-19–related diabetes.

All these scientific evidence indicate that diabetes management during COVID times and even post the pandemic will become a priority for both healthcare providers and people alike. This new development also gives much scope to diabetes clinics to expand their services and introduce newer packages and reach out to as many people across the country.