Abstract:
Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a global public health concern for many nations in the 21st Century with
approximately 246 million people worldwide living with diabetes. A large number of research studies have it that
nurses’ knowledge on diabetes mellitus is poor and that there is the need to increase their knowledge level for
effective management of patients with diabetes mellitus. In some cases, nurses’ knowledge was adequate but they
lacked knowledge in certain aspects of diabetes mellitus care especially, diabetic complications and insulin
advancements. Also, there was a general notion in Sub-Saharan Africa that health care workers were insufficiently
trained in chronic disease management.
Methods: With this in mind, there was the need to find out the knowledge level of nurses in the Central Region of
Ghana, particularly the Central Regional Hospital, the District Hospital and the University Hospital. To arrive at that a
modified version of The Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Centre’s Brief Diabetic Knowledge Test was
administered.
Results: Fourty- four 44 (32.4%) of the respondents’ knowledge was good.However, knowledge level in the area
of diabetic complications was generally poor among majority (68.4%) of the respondents.
Conclusions: It is recommended that nurses continue to upgrade their knowledge in the area of diabetes
mellitus, particularly in the area of diabetes complications and insulin advancements.
