NURSING INTERVENTION TO DIABETIC CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS FROM THE EARLY ONSET OF IDDM

Konno, Miki

Diabetic child

The purposes of this study were to investigate how perceptions and feelings about diabetes self-care activities motivate actual activities among diabetic children and their parents during the first 2 years after diagnosis of Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM), and identify effective nursing interventions through the author's nursing experiences with patients and parents. The studied subjects were three child/parent pairs. The patients required hospitalization from the onset of IDDM. The results were as follows: 1. When patients had few or no negative feelings and perceived high self-efficacy about diabetes self-care activities, their actual activities were appropriate. During the early onset period parental dependent diabetes self-care activities were fairly appropriate even when parents were feeling anxious about the future and were resistant to the activities. Concerning insulin therapy, the parents found it more difficult to accept than the patients did. On the other hand, concerning diet, parents could directly assist the patients; parents accepted the value of diet before accepting insulin therapy. 2. Nursing interventions could contribute to quickly getting a good assessment of the patients' and parents' problem solving, empathizing with their perceptions and feelings, and trying to think with them about better self-care activities while paying attention to their usual coping patterns. Nursing interventions were effective in helping patients and parents to undertake effective self-care decision making.