Perceptions, Awareness, and Attitudes of Primary Health Care Workers Towards Management of Type-2 Diabetes in Jordan: A Qualitative Study

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore health care workers’ perceptions, awareness and attitudes towards the factors that contribute to poor glycemic control among patients with Type-2 diabetes in Jordan.

MATERIAL & METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted to seek rich, in-depth data about health care workers’ perceptions and attitudes regarding Type-2 diabetes. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with primary health care workers: four nurses, physician, dietitian, pharmacist, lab technician, dentist and receptionist who were recruited using purposive sampling. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and uploaded to the qualitative data analysis software package NVivo 12. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

RESULTS: Four themes were derived from the interview analysis: lack of knowledge of patients regarding diabetes and its management; influence of socio-cultural factors on patients’ diabetes management behaviors included eating pattern and physical activity; challenges related to the health care system including medication insecurity and health insurance policies and challenges related to staff shortages and poor patient-staff communication.

CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that medical and nursing practice could usefully move away from a task-oriented medical model towards a more holistic approach in diabetes management. Health promotion should be delivered in a wider context to target the population in different age groups to raise awareness of diabetes amongst the general population in Jordan. Nurses’ skills and knowledge could be utilized to rectify patients’ misconceptions and beliefs regarding diabetes treatment.