Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of these standards and/or policies in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. Explain how these standards and/or policies will guide your actions in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.

mpact on Diabetes-Related Costs of Care at the Individual and System Levels

Government policies greatly impact the costs of care for the treatment of diabetes. For instance, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), through its “Essential Health Benefits,” created federal standards that describe the provisions of insurance coverage for diabetes (American Diabetes Association (ADA), 2021). The ACA made it mandatory that insurance plans consider existing medical conditions like diabetes. The ACA requires that insurance plans provide coverage for all critical diabetes management services, including diabetes screening, prescription drugs, and other services in treating diabetes. Without the ACA, the 23 million people in the U.S. today who are under diabetes treatment plans supported by insurance covers would have to pay out of pocket for such services. This would not only negatively impact the affordability of diabetes treatment but also lead to developing diabetes-related complications with further impacts on the cost of care.

Strategies to Improve Quality of Care

The improvement of the quality of care for diabetes patients will be achieved through patient and population education. The multidisciplinary team tasked with diabetes management will be required to develop health promotion programs that focus on educating the community and the patients on self-care, providing support for diabetes patients, and reducing the stigmatization of diabetic patients. Diabetes education provides knowledge and skills and changes patients’ behavior and community perception of diabetes (Świątoniowska et al., 2019). Education can improve compliance with the treatment plan. This also impacts factors of quality care, such as collaboration in the treatment process, disease awareness and related risks and complications, and psychological reliance. Data has proved that diabetes education significantly improves life habits and self-care behaviors, which, in turn, improve self-efficacy in the management of diabetes (Lee et al., 2019).

Strategy to Enhance Patient Safety

The recommended strategy to enhance patient safety during the treatment of diabetes is through improved patient monitoring. Improved patient monitoring will help identify and manage complications as they emerge. It will also help ensure that patients receive the safest and most suitable medications to prevent medication errors and reduce cases of adverse drug effects on diabetes patients. Improved monitoring includes the education of the nurses and other clinicians on patient safety, diabetes medications, drug interactions, and related risks, knowledge of individual diabetes patients, and complications related to diabetes. Data suggests that advanced education significantly influences all dimensions of patient safety culture in all healthcare settings (Titlestad et al., 2018).

Strategy to Reduce Care Costs to Individuals and the System

The recommended strategy to reduce the costs of care related to diabetes for both individuals and the entire healthcare system is through the prevention of diabetes and related complications. The cost of treating diabetes, as earlier noted, is high and costs thousands of dollars per person per year. The prevention of diabetes and related morbidities is a significant strategy that can reduce the associated costs and improve the quality of life and diabetes mortality rates. Diabetes prevention strategies that target individuals at risk of diabetes are cost-effective and reduce the costs of overall disease prevention (Zhou et al., 2020). Research data further links the adoption of these cost-effective diabetes prevention measures to significantly reduce the cost of diabetes care (Riddle & Herman, 2018).

Part 2

I met with the multidisciplinary and interprofessional team tasked with managing diabetes in the facility and the community. The team comprised diabetes specialist nurses, physicians, a nutritionist, social community health workers, and a few diabetic patients. I learned that diabetes management requires an integrated multidisciplinary approach to meet the various diabetes treatment objectives.

I reviewed websites and documents in such websites related to diabetes mellitus, such as the WHO and CDC websites, the diaTribe Foundation’s website, the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and the World Diabetes Foundation websites. I learned that although diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease and lacks a cure, it can be successfully managed and the associated complications reduced. However, the management plan depends on the type of diabetes.

I have learned that leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, nursing practice standards, and policies can be facilitators or barriers to diabetes manage