Diabetes and Self-Care Ability of High School Diabetics The diabetes menace has become on of the central health challenges that ail our contemporary society. The trends have change significantly over the last 50 years and now the high school population that suffers form diabetes has vastly increased. This is informed by the predisposing factors that the children are exposed to at their younger age and the fewer physical activities like sports that they engage in before the high school stage. The dietary habits of most young children is yet another factor that leads to the development of diabetic conditions among the children with the easiest foods that they indulge in on a daily basis being high sugar low-carb diets. These being the prevailing facts, there is need to have an intervention plan which will help the high school students who suffer from diabetes to better handle the condition. This is a plan that is aimed at ensuring that the students lead a near normal life and are informed about their condition such that they do not have to limit their lifestyle for fear of having diabetic attacks and yet far away from a doctor. It is an intervention plan that will also help both those suffering from diabetes and those living with them know the kind of simple physical activities and social activities that they can engage in to ensure they lead healthy lifestyles that do not predispose them to obesity which is closely related to diabetes.

Abstract

The diabetes intervention plan herein involves a two pronged approach which looks at the social cultural lifestyle of the individual, as well as the medical intervention that is suitable for the diabetic students. The intervention focuses on the high school students since this is the age group that can me entrusted with medical equipment and drugs and be trained on how to administer it to self successfully. This age is considered as one that has the basic skills that can be built on and be left to be sufficient at their own implementation of the training that they receive. The intervention is meant to be multifaceted in the results that it will achieve in that the individual students with diabetes will gain in getting to know how to handle their condition, and the general public, here the students of the selected high school, will have the requisite knowledge on how to handle diabetes and whet they need to do to avoid developing diabetes as well.

This proposed intervention plan will be in three basic categories; the implementation plan, evaluation plan and dissemination plan. The implementation plat will essentially look into how the students can be equipped to handle their conditions and the physical activities and the schedule that they can adopt to better manage their diabetic conditions. The evaluation plan will highlight how the researcher will monitor the success or lack of it in the implemented intervention plan. This evaluation will give the directions on what need to be changed in order to make the intervention plan work best. Dissemination plan will highlight how the intervention plane is envisioned to be passed down to the students and the main stakeholders who will assist in ensuring the plan comes in actualization.

Problem statement

Diabetes has been one of the biggest challenges faced by the health sector in the recent decades. There have been soaring numbers of fast foods across the nation and with them the subsequent rise in the number of diabetic population and in specific the high school students who hardly have any time to cook or access healthy foods hence opting for the fast foods during their breakfast hours and lunch break. The change in the feeding habits is significantly informed and shaped by the change in trends and lifestyle where eating in fast foods is seen as both a fashionable trend and convenient despite the outright health challenges that come with it like the predisposition to obesity and diabetes due to wrong diet. Ferguson, T., Tulloch-Reis, M., Wilks, R. (2010) note that the last 50 years have seen the highest number of Western fast foods mushroom across the world and with it the significant rise in the number of diabetes cases, especially...

It is also unfortunate that most of the high school students, due to the cultural foods they are accustomed to from the young age, they do not know what categories of foods are healthy for them as diabetics hence indulge in almost any unhealthy foods they get without knowing the consequences. There is general lack of knowledge on the foods that are healthy and the quantities that need to be taken in line with the advice of the dieticians. This is yet another area where the plan intends to outline and highlight so that the students are able to initiate healthy eating programs for the good of their own health.
Thirdly and finally for this paper, there is the problem of social lifestyle and its connection to the menace of diabetes among the high school students. The docile lifestyle has facilitated the increase in numbers of obese students, which is a predisposing factor to diabetes. The plan will seek to inculcate the culture of active leisure as opposed to the prevailing dormant or docile leisure. The plan will suggest several ways that the students can strengthen their social ties through active leisure and also develop personal exercise schedules that suit their programs and academic schedules.

In light of these facts aforementioned, there is need to have a well structured and easy to understand approach towards empowering the high school students to take care of themselves in the event that they happen to develop diabetes. The plan needs to cover the three problem areas identified above and also be comprehensive enough yet simple enough to follow and implement for the students. The plan also needs to be one that can be monitored by the people whom the students interact with frequently, in this case the teachers in order to ensue the intervention is efficient and safe for the students. The ease of application of this intervention and the safety among the teenagers will be the two pivotal points that will give the intervention the advantage and acceptability among the students.

The intervention above is grounded on the self-care theory developed by Dorothea Orem. The proposed approach that will guide the formulation of this intervention and which is best and suitable for high school students is the Self-care theory which was formulated by Dorothea Orem who was determined to see improvement in quality of nursing in general hospitals. It is upon the basis of this theory and the assumptions therein that the assessment of the knowledge that students have and the application of the knowledge of diabetes management will be based.

There are basic assumptions or tenets that guide and shape the self-care theory; one significant one is that people should be self-reliant and responsible for their own care as well as those of the family members who may be in need of the health care. The theory also recognizes that people are different and unique for that matter. Self-care theory also indicates that nursing is an action that involves interaction between two or more persons to help improve the health of the patient. It also states that the knowledge of potential health problems is essential for the promotion of self-care behaviors or measures by the individual. The last but significant tenet is that the self-care and dependent care are both behaviors learned within a social cultural context (Alice P., 2015). These are the tenets that are essential and guiding in this proposed knowledge evaluation plan. With this approach or theory guiding the formulation and implementation of the intervention plan, there is likelihood of obtaining higher rates of success in the end result that is desirable for the program.

Proposed solutions

Bearing the nature of the problem of diabetes, this intervention plan will have a three tier approach to comprehensively handle the diabetes among the teenagers; the medical aspect, the dietary aspect and the physical activities/social lifestyle aspect.

Medical solution intervention plan

The diabetic students who agree to participate in the program will be located various days for the medical training and a team of qualified medics who are well versed on issue of diabetes will be conducting the training. The medics will spend at least three days with the students who will be in groups of 10 students per session. This low number of students per group is meant to ensure comprehensive contact and understanding of the medical facts and self initiated intervention. The medical approach will basically be meant to sensitize the students on what they need to watch out for symptoms of an impending diabetic attack. With the knowledge of the signs, they will then be trained on how…