Are the resources adoptive for conducting team-based diabetes management clinics? An explorative study at primary health care centers in Muscat, Oman

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 26 public primary health care centers in Muscat, the capital of Oman. Data were collected from manual and electronic resources as well as a questionnaire that was distributed to the physician-in-charge and diabetes management team members.FindingsThe study revealed significant differences between professional groups regarding how they perceived their own competencies, values and skills as well as available resources related to team-based diabetes management. The perceived competencies were high among all professions. The perceived team-related values and skills were also generally high but with overall lower recordings among the nurses. This pattern, along with the fact that very few nurses have specialized qualifications, is a barrier to providing team-based diabetes management. Participants indicated that there were sufficient laboratory resources; however, reported that pharmacological, technical and human resources were lacking. Further work should be done at public primary diabetes management clinics in order to fully implement team-based diabetes management.

“Yes to discuss different models of care between primary care physicians and diabetes-practice nurses, but not to complete implementation yet”: Explorative qualitative study at diabetes clinics in primary health care centres in Muscat, Oman

“…Therefore, these weaknesses that were identified in this study were also reported in the literature, and it should be added that the majority of practicing nurses in clinical settings have less than a baccalaureate degree and may not have been exposed to formal research literature. Furthermore, the incompetent knowledge and skills which were found in our setting and confirmed by a previous study in this project [8] contributed to the nurses' weaknesses and needs for their training to be updated and revised.…”

“…The gender imbalance could be explained in relation to the higher number of female providers compared to their male counterparts at primary health care centres. [8] The health care providers who were of mixed nationalities (physicians) provided more perceptions and feedback towards the models of care compared to other providers, who were all Omanis, and this could be explained by experiences from their countries of origin and by the Omani physicians' specialization, which was gained from abroad. The interviews were conducted in a professional way, with maximum research ability, despite the hierarchical perception towards physicians at Ministry of Health, and all providers were given voices and chances to express their perceptions equally, which gave them a sense of importance and validity in the diabetes management team.…”

“…The other two studies are based on observations of diabetic patients and care providers during service provision [20] and interviews with patients. The selection was based on the results revealed from the first (quantitative) study of the project [8] and aimed at maximum variation among the centres. The selected primary health care centres included: 1) a centre with mixed nationalities of health care providers on the diabetes care team; 2) a centre with only Omani health care providers on the diabetes care team; 3) a centre with no pharmaceutical and technical resources related to the diabetes care team; 4) a centre with absence of some of the health care providers from the diabetes care team; and 5) a centre with the highest number of diabetic patients recorded per centre in Muscat and the presence of additional health care providers to the diabetes care team.…”

“…The core diabetes team in Oman consists of a physician, a nurse, a dietician, and a health educator. [8] The team-based approach is constructed on the available national evidence-based guidelines, which were developed based on the current research related to the prevention and treatment of diabetes, supported by the International Diabetes Federation, [9,10] the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology and the American College of Endocrinology and Diabetes Management Guidelines. [11] The clinics in primary health care in Oman are the levels where the diseases are first suspected, diagnosed, treated and followed up including diabetes.…”

Factors associated with the utilization of community-based diabetes management care: A cross-sectional study in Shandong Province, China

“…Globally, community-based diabetes management, although varying in approach under different health systems [7][8][9][10], is an important strategy for the control of diabetes. A large number of programs have demonstrated the enormous role of community-based diabetes management in delaying complications and avoiding hospital admissions [11,12].…”