Dr. Donna Freeborn, College of Nursing

This intervention project consisted of four workshops for children/adolescents with type 1 diabetes held over a four month period in Winter/Spring 2011 and then another series of workshops for children/adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1DM), parents of these children, and siblings held over four months in Fall 2011. Evaluations and feedback from participants have been positive and underscore the need to continue these workshops on an ongoing basis. Parental workshops were conducted by Christina Yazzie, a graduate student, who presented a poster on the intervention at the Western Institute of Nursing Conference in April, 2012. Workshops for the children with T1DM and their siblings were conducted by undergraduate students from the College of Nursing and the School of Education. Cristy Johnson, an undergraduate, completed an ORCA on the interventions and spearheaded a presentation, with the assistance of the other students, at the College of Nursing Research Conference held Fall 2011.

Undergraduate and graduate students from the College of Nursing have been mentored throughout this project. Graduate students have also been involved and mentored undergraduate students: Cristy Johnson, Camille Dunn, Shannon McOmber, Laura, Boone, Lori Carter, and Christina Yazzie. Mentoring outcomes have been positive. Undergraduate students have learned qualitative research approaches, developed workshop curriculum, and interacted appropriately with study participants.

Evaluation of workshops have indicated an increased understanding of diabetes, improved attitudes about diabetes, and reduced parental stress. However, these findings were based on only a four month period of participation. Feedback from parents and children indicated the need for ongoing workshops, which is the next goal for this project. Future workshops are anticipated to be held on a monthly basis over a two year period and will track the Hgb A1C levels of the children with T1DM. Monitoring Hgb A1C levels, which indicate average blood glucose levels over a 3 month period, is a regular part of diabetes management so participants will be asked to voluntarily report their A1C levels. This will give us a more quantitative indication of the benefit of the workshops.

The budget was used to pay student salaries, purchase supplies for workshops, and pay for Christina Yazzie to present her poster at the Western Institute of Nursing conference.