Collaborating through Telecommunications to Improve Health Outcomes for the Diabetic School Child

Abstract

<p>Diabetes is a common chronic disease of children managed in school settings. Providing care for the diabetic school child can be challenging, which increases when coupled with little communication between the nurse, primary care provider and the parent regarding the child's diabetic care for seven hours daily. The purpose of this study is to improve the health care of school children with type 1 diabetes through the collaboration of primary care providers, parents of a diabetic school child and the school nurse. The researcher hypothesizes that using telecommunication will increase collaboration between the parent, primary care provider and school nurse, and that increased communication will correlate with fewer glycemic events during the school year. The target population will be first through fifth graders with type 1 diabetes. This non probability sampling plan requires each participant to be a school child with type 1 diabetes requiring insulin during the school day and a parent who agrees to use telecommunication and who signs an informed consent and provides permission to contact the primary care provider. In this quantitative research, two correlational analyses will be done: 1) between the concepts telecommunication and collaboration, and 2) between the frequency of communication and number of glycemic events. This longitudinal study will use the first three months of school to collect baseline data and the last 6 months for intervention with data collection at midpoint and the end. The results of this research will be useful to the school nurse, parent and primary care provider in planning for the care of the diabetic school child and will provide a model for collaboration. Furthermore, research of communication programs to improve health outcomes meets an objective for Healthy People 2010: Health Communication.</p><p>This presentation occurred at the Wright State University Campus-Wide Celebration of Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities on April 16, 2010</p>