Determining the profile of diabetes nurses in İstanbul

Diabetes must be managed by an interdisciplinary team because of its lifelong survival and the need for comprehensive management. Diabetes nurses play an important role in this team. There is not enough data about the quality and quantity of diabetes nursing in our country. The research aims to identify the profile of diabetes nurses in Istanbul, the areas where diabetes nursing needs to be improved and the opportunities and opportunities for this. The study was conducted with 55 diabetes nurses working in the hospitals in Istanbul (n = 41) or who did (n = 14). The questionnaire prepared by the researchers included sociodemographic, educational and occupational qualifications, workload, diabetes nursing roles, physical, environmental and financial opportunities, job satisfaction, current problems and suggestions. There was also a short section investigating the experiences and reasons of resignation for non-active diabetes nurses. The questionnaire was completed online by the participants on the Qualtrics platform. Data were analyzed by percentage distribution in SPSS program. It was found that 40% of diabetes nurses have bachelor's degree, 72.7% of them have diabetes nursing certificate, 41% of them have been nursing for 10-19 years and 46.3% of them have been working as diabetes nurse for 1-5 years. Findings of the participants who are working as diabetes nurses (n = 41). It was found that 32.5% of the diabetes nurses provided individual training to polyclinic patients and inpatients, and 25.2% of them used slides and brochures for diabetes training. Also it was found that all participants provided training on insulin injection, blood glucose measurement, definition of diabetes, oral diabetes medications, hypoglycemia, chronic complications of diabetes, 47.7% of them kept electronic records, and 62.5% of them made evaluations after each training. 92.7% of the participants stated that they have a training room It was determined that 20% of the nurses performed additional tasks such as glucose measurement and 18.2% endocrine tests. It was found that almost all of the participants (90.2%) did not find their salary sufficient, they did not receive performance and additional payment for their duties (90%) and diabetes education (100%). It was seen that 50% of diabetes nurses were allowed to participate in the training program only because they were paid and 32.8% could not participate because they could not provide resources. Diabetes nurses were generally satisfied or very satisfied with their profession (73.1%), not satisfied with their salaries (34.1%) and incentives and rewards (31.7%). Diabetes nurses, who are not actively working (n=14), stated that the institution should be assigned another department (50%) as the reason for leaving the job. 64.3% of the participants who do not actively work stated that they would like to take up duty again if they are assigned as diabetes nurse. As a result of the research, it was found that the participants frequently experience problems such as job descriptions, salaries, training allowances and workload intensity. Wages of diabetes nurses should be improved, performance and additional payment system should be established, an additional fee / allowance should be provided for their diabetes trainings, their duties, authorisations and responsibilities should be updated in detail and prevented from being used as labor force in different fields, and should be encouraged to develop research roles.