MIT Department Works To Tackle Diabetes

Tuesday, 11 September 2007

MIT’s Department of Nursing and Health Studies work with Tonga to tackle diabetes

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has teamed with Manukau Institute of Technology’s Department of Nursing and Health Studies in a unique approach towards the diagnosis, management, and treatment of diabetes.

Counties Manukau District Health Board (CMDHB), MIT and Langimalie Health Centre (LHC) have collaborated to create the Community Based Nursing Care for Clients with Diabetes Mellitus programme for six Tongan nurses who are fellows of the WHO Fellowship Programme.

“This programme is unique to our healthcare sector as it has been tailor-made for these six nurses from Tonga,” says Dr Willem Fourie, deputy HoD of the Department of Nursing and Health Studies.

“Being based in the largest Polynesian city in the world, MIT is well-positioned to work with foreign agencies and local partners around this chronic and often debilitating disease. At MIT we believe in the benefits that community based nursing provides and this programme is to have a strong community focus.”

The initiative aims to provide the clinical experience as close as possible to that of the Tongan experience as “it is felt that the nurses will be able to take home a lot more if they are at ease listening to advice and are able to respond in an appropriate setting”.

Willem adds that the Onehunga-based LHC has strong community ties and, with mostly Tongan clients, it employs Tongan speaking specialised diabetes nurses to work with patients suffering from the disease.

The challenges New Zealand healthcare organisations such as LHC faces around diabetes are echoed in Tonga where it is estimated that 18% of the adult population has diabetes and only about one-third have been diagnosed and informed about the condition. “The level of client understanding of the disease and the compliance with treatment is generally poor and it is not uncommon for diagnosed diabetic clients in their 40s and 50s to develop serious complications such as gangrenous lower limbs and septicaemia,” says Willem.

“There is a need for increasing the overall capacity for diabetes services and for strengthening primary diabetes care through the transfer of primary responsibility for diabetes clients from tertiary level to the community/health centre level.”

Through the programme the six fellows are expected to have gained good knowledge and skills such as recognising clients with diabetes and clients at risk of developing diabetes and recognising early signs and symptoms of diabetes complications. They should be confident in areas such as questioning clients in order to pick up poor control and early complications, the pharmacology specific to the management of diabetes, and the use of diabetes check-up lists and evaluation of long term control.

Over a period of 11 weeks, students will undertake three weeks of theory and eight weeks of clinical learning experience at CMDHB and LHC. They will also be attending a top-level diabetes conference in Christchurch in September.

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