Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this Master of Science in Nursing quality improvement scholarly project is to perform a chart review of adult patients with type II diabetes in the primary care setting who utilized a health coach and measure its effect on their hemoglobin A1c.|Background: Diabetes affects over 29 million Americans and another 1.7 million are diagnosed every year. Diabetes leads to complications such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, neuropathy, and nephropathy and costs Americans more than $245 billion each year. Diabetes control is best measured by hemoglobin A1c. Disease management can be overwhelming to patients but is shown to improve with diabetes education.|Sample/Setting: Data was collected from one hundred patients with type II diabetes that meet inclusion criteria and have completed a minimum of one session with a diabetes health coach in an urban Midwest primary care clinic. The sample contained hemoglobin A1c levels before and after they utilized training with a health coach.|Methods: Data was collected using a convenience sample from an urban Midwest primary care clinic.|Data Analysis: Data was analyzed using a paired t-test method to determine statistical significance of hemoglobin A1c levels before and after diabetes health coach interventions.|Conclusions: Results did not show a statistically significant reduction in hemoglobin A1c after the intervention. However, findings did show that the majority of subjects (54 of 100) did improve their hemoglobin A1c with an average improvement of 0.94 points.