Fact-finding survey on education and nursing of patients with diabetes hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic

<p>This study aimed to determine the actual conditions of education and nursing of patients with diabetes hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic. A web-based survey was conducted on Certified Nurse Specialists in Chronic Care Nursing and Certified Nurse in Diabetes Nursing in inpatient medical facilities. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data were analyzed using qualitative inductive methods.</p><p>Data from 184 participants were analyzed. Among the facilities, 57.6% had restricted hospitalization for patients with diabetes at some time to prevent the spread of infection, and 63.0% had decreased the number of educational classes for patients with diabetes. Educational and nursing problems due to the spread of COVID-19 included：difficulty in continuing self-care due to inability to provide guidance to family members because of visitation restrictions, deterioration of the educational and self-care environments of patients with diabetes, and decrease in the quality of education due to COVID-19 measures. The measures and ingenuities included the following：providing guidance to patients' family members under visitation restrictions, devising educational materials to replace face-to-face instruction, adding educational content regarding COVID-19, minimizing risk of infection by restricting contact between hospitalized patients and outpatients.</p><p>The findings suggest the necessity to create a system to assure the quality of diabetes nursing even under conditions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>