Diabetes specialist nurses' knowledge, skills, and personal attributes for providing competent health education practice, and its influencing factors: A cross-sectional survey.

Background: The number of diabetes specialist nurse as well as their knowledge and skills have increased in Gansu Province since 2017. However, China has not fully addressed how to improve their professional skills to deliver effective health education.

Aims: To investigate the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes of competent health education practices among diabetes specialist nurses in Gansu Province, western China, and the potential influencing factors.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: In total, 178 diabetes specialist nurses from 45 hospitals participated in this study. Data were collected between December 2022 and April 2023 using the Nurse Health Education Competence Instrument (I-CepSE) and a self-report questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including univariate and multiple linear regression analyses, were used to analyze data.

Results: The mean scores of overall I-CepSE, knowledge, skills, and personal attributes were 218.77 ± 31.65, 77.80 ± 18.27, 103.95 ± 13.75 and 37.02 ± 4.73, respectively. A shortage of nursing staff and heavy workload (81.4 %), lack of cooperation from patients (56.5 %), lack of access to educational resources during work placement (54.2 %), and nurses' lack of knowledge/skills in health education (53.1 %) were common barriers to health education implementation. The regression models for the overall health education competence domain were significant (P < 0.001) with R values ranging from 31.9 % to 50.5 %. Education level and years of experience in diabetes-related care were found to be significant on all knowledge, skills, and personal attitude scales (P < 0.05), and age was associated with diabetes specialist nurses' skills and personal attitude scores (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Diabetes specialist nurses demonstrated moderate to high levels of health education knowledge, skills, and attitudes. However, they lacked knowledge of pedagogical techniques and resources, with inadequate educational skills. This study suggests that reasonable nursing human resource allocation and continuous education and training are crucial for improving health education competence.