Diabetes and Nutrition

Course overview

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020a) reports that 34.2 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with diabetes and another 7.3 million adults are undiagnosed but meet the criteria. About 1.6 million Americans have type 1 diabetes (CDC, 2020a). As a nurse, you have an important role in giving patients diabetes self-management education and support, which includes helping patients understand the role of nutrition in diabetes management. Macronutrients, including carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, support important body processes and are important in helping patients prevent or delay diabetes-related complications. It is important that nurses are aware of the challenges some patients experience related to proper nutrition and eating behaviors. Further, nurses need to be prepared to offer education, support, and intervention to help patients mitigate these challenges. The goal of this course is to provide nurses in health and human services settings with information to help patients with diabetes understand how nutrition impacts their health and how to improve their nutrition and eating behaviors.