Final Project

Clay and I only have about a week left at the Catholic Charities and I have no idea where the time went! This has been such an extraordinary experience and I am grateful for all those who made it possible. For our project, we decided that diabetes education would be beneficial to this population because there are very few patients who do not have either personal or family history of diabetes. The common teaching points for diabetes tend to focus on healthy eating, exercise, and medications. Therefore, in the hopes of avoiding redundancy, Clay and I collaborated with Sister Carole and our clinical coordinator to develop a poster which highlights the potential affects of diabetes on the body systems, something not as commonly discussed. We printed 18x24 inch posters and put them in each of the four exam rooms. Immediately, patients used the poster as a discussion starter; “My sister has diabetes and she hasn’t had her eyes check in 10 years! Should I tell her to go?”, “Wow, I didn’t know diabetes could affect the heart like that!”, etc. To statistically analyze the effectiveness, we give patients a pre-test while they are in the waiting room, then a post-test with the same questions after their visit is completed. Though we have not done any calculations to show numeric improvement, it is obvious when we compare the pre and post-tests that patients are gaining valuable information from the posters! This is such a great feeling to know what we are doing will have lasting effect on patient education. :)