INTRODUCTION. Polish medical students’ knowledge level about diabetes is unknown. No research has been carried out that would enable to evaluate the knowledge and students’ preparation level to educate patients about diabetes and self-control. Only the research on patients of diabetic clinics show a very low knowledge level of the patients. The respondents know little about the disease they suffer from and they are prepared insufficiently for self-care. The article presents the questionnaire results on knowledge level of the Medical University of Łódź nursing students that in the future will take care of diabetic patients, especially those with diabetes type 2. The obtained data enable to evaluate the level of students’ knowledge about this disease and show that several relevant areas were not fully covered.
MATERIAL AND METHODS. The research was conducted in October, 2004 and employed auditorial questionnaire method. The questioned group consisted of 70 female students of 3^rd and 4^th year nursing department at Medical University of Łódź.
RESULTS. The thoroughly known issues are: prevalence of diabetes in Poland, the causes and symptoms of hyper- and hypoglycaemia, diabetes type 2 complications and ways of preventing them, proper diabetic diet (excluding the issues of alcohol drinking), basics of disease treatment. The questioned nurses are fully able to operate diabetic self-control devices. However, the following issues are insufficiently known: safe value of arterial blood pressure, desirable lipid profile of diabetic patients, influence of ethyl alcohol and physical effort on glucose level in diabetic patient’s blood, selected ways of amines diabetes control as well as methods of early diagnosis of the disease. A large part of the group (70%) is not aware of the fact that smoking is one of the important diabetes type 2 risk factors. In opinion of most nursing students the issue of diabetes was not thoroughly covered during the university classes. The vast majority of questioned students graduating from this department of medical studies feel insufficiently prepared for the role of a diabetic tutor in their prospective work with diabetic patients. Almost all respondents pointed out that introducing a diabetic specialization is necessary.
CONCLUSIONS. The nursing students’ knowledge level about diabetes is not sufficient to provide the patient with diabetes type 2 professional help. Majority of surveyed students are not sufficiently prepared to work with patients as a diabetic tutor. Nursing students point out that it is necessary to introduce a diabetic specialization that would enable them to substantially extend their knowledge about diabetes. The questionnaire results can be a base for diabetes educational curriculum modifications at medical schools and may encourage to introduce a diabetic specialization.