Efficacy of Nursing Skin Care Protocol on Prevention of Skin Related Problems among Newly Diagnosed Diabetic Patients

Background:Approximately 400 million people would be afflicted with diabetes by 2025, projected worldwide.In India, about 50.9 million people suffer from diabetes, and this figure willgo up to 80 million by 2025. Diabetes leads to blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and foot ulcer. Skin problems are increasing in diabetic patients. It is estimated that 30% of diabetes patients will experience a skin problem at some stage throughout the course of their disease. Many skin care guidelines are given for diabetic foot care, but nursing skin care protocolfor diabetic patients is not available. Less attention is given to complete skin care in diabetes routine care.There is need to develop Nursing skin care protocols for prevention of skin problems in diabetes.

Objectives:To validate the developed nursing skin care protocol on prevention of skin related problems among newly diagnosed diabetic patients, to assess the skin problems in experimental group and control group, and to assess the efficacy of nursing skin care protocolin experimental group and routine skin care with coconut oil in control group.

Methodology: Study design is randomized controlled trial.Study will be carried out in hospital setting with 140 participants. Random allocation and concealment with single blinding will be done.Intervention is Nursing skin care protocolconsist of Daily skin inspection, Bathing, Drying, clothing, Application of lotion, Hydration, Injury prevention, Nail careandHair care, Sugar control, Dermatological consultation and Physician consultation. Semi structure questionnaire, skin assessment tool[ GI, Glammal score for xerosis,Visual Analogue Scale for pruritus, Questionnaire on erythema,hair and nail colourchanges] and self-reported practice checklist will be used to collect data.

Expected Results: Investigator expects newly diagnosed diabetic patients will not develop any skin related problems after using Nursing skin care protocol.

Conclusion: Diabetic patients will be able to utilized developed nursing skin care protocol routinely to prevent skin related problems.