Abstract

Diabetes is a pervasive health problem with potentially devastating but preventable consequences. Although technological advances and new treatments have resulted in great optimism for controlling the disease, research indicates that the challenges of diabetes self-management are overwhelming for many. One creative intervention which has beginning empirical support and which seems to be helping many living with diabetes to sustain management of the disease and quality of life is diabetes support groups. Nurse diabetes educators have been frequent facilitators in these groups, yet little is known about how these nurses perceive their role and the strategies they use as well as the kind of enhancers and barriers they experience in working with these groups.

This study attempts to better understand this intervention through an exploration of: (1) the nurse's perception and evolution of her role as facilitator; (2) the strategies used by nurse facilitators in the support group context; (3) the extent to which these strategies varied across individual and group settings; and (4) the enhancers and barriers that nurse facilitators experience in attempting to use these strategies in the context of a diabetes support group.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3276978; ProQuest document ID: 304817971. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Joanne F. Costello, PhD, MSN, MPH, BSN, PHCNS-BC

Sigma Membership

Delta Upsilon at-Large

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Descriptive/Correlational

Research Approach

Pilot/Exploratory Study

Keywords:

Support Groups, Empirical Support, Facilitators

Advisor

Donna Schwartz-Barcott

Second Advisor

Patricia Burbank

Third Advisor

David Byrd

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

University of Rhode Island

Degree Year

2007

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2024-02-29

Full Text of Presentation

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