Abstract
Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) requires ongoing self-management to reduce the risk of complications and improve health outcomes. At a federally qualified health center in South Florida, approximately 60% of patients seen daily had T2DM, while access to diabetes education was limited. This practice gap demonstrated a need for additional evidence-based diabetes self-management support.
Purpose: This Doctor of Nursing Practice quality improvement project evaluated the effectiveness of a tailored diabetes education intervention in enhancing self-care behaviors related to glucose management, dietary control, physical activity, and healthcare use among adults with T2DM.
Methods: A quantitative descriptive pre- and post-intervention design was used. Participants received a 15-minute individualized diabetes education session using American Diabetes Association resources, printed educational materials, and biweekly motivational text messages over eight weeks. Diabetes self-management behaviors were measured using the 16-item Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire (DSMQ). Fifteen participants with matched pre- and post-intervention questionnaires were included in the final analysis. Paired-samples t-tests and a Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used as appropriate based on normality testing.
Results: Overall diabetes self-management improved significantly, with the DSMQ Sum Scale increasing by a mean of 3.87 points (p = .0001). Glucose Management demonstrated the greatest improvement, increasing by 2.40 points (p = .0004). Physical Activity also improved significantly by 0.93 points (p = .0290). Dietary Control and Healthcare Use demonstrated positive but nonsignificant changes. Participant satisfaction with the educational intervention was high.
Conclusion: Tailored diabetes education reinforced with motivational text messages was effective in improving overall diabetes self-management, particularly glucose management and physical activity. Incorporating individualized education, evidence-based resources, and automated text-message reinforcement into primary care may provide a feasible strategy for supporting ongoing diabetes self-management. Future implementation should include larger samples, longer follow-up periods, and clinical outcomes such as HbA1c.
Notes
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Sigma Membership
Epsilon
Type
DNP Capstone Project
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Descriptive/Correlational
Research Approach
Quantitative Research
Keywords:
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetes Self-Management, Self-Management (Psychology), Diabetes Education, Health Education, Health Promotion, Patient Education, People with Diabetes, Glycosylated Hemoglobin, Tailored Patient Education, Text Messaging, Text Messages, Primary Care, Primary Health Care
Advisor
Raquel Bicknell
Second Advisor
Kathleen Brown
Third Advisor
Kimberly Sand
Degree
DNP
Degree Grantor
Nova Southeastern University
Degree Year
2026
Recommended Citation
Croubalian, Katrina, "Enhancing Self-Management Through Targeted Diabetic Education for Adults in a Primary Care Clinic" (2026). DNP and Student Works. 341.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/dnps/341
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
Self-submission
Date of Issue
2026-10-16
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
A quantitative descriptive pre- and post-intervention design was used for this Quality Improvement.