Diabetes

            Seventeen million Americans have diabetes. The direct results of that figure make diabetes the most costly health problems in America. While considering that costs for healthcare, you must realize that one in three diabetic people do not know it! Many people first become aware that they have diabetes when faced with complications from the disease. Patients with diabetes are more likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, blindness, and complications in pregnancy. People with diabetes are more susceptible to many other illnesses and, once they acquire these illnesses, often have a worse prognosis than those without diabetes. For example, they are more likely to die with pneumonia or influenza than people who do not have diabetes. They are also twice as likely to have a stroke. Early treatment and insulin control though medication, diet, and exercise can reduce these effects, but the day-to-day activities of a diabetic person is difficult and limited. .
             We are living in exciting times, where discoveries are being made in the effort to prevent and cure diabetes. Fortunately, at the forefront of patient care are nurses. Nurses have the knowledge and ability to better the quality of life for diabetes patients and their families. A healthcare provider will probably not cure diabetes, but the role a nurse plays for each patient is life altering. The job each RN does each day is rewarding, and the basis for my choice to pursue nursing as a career. The total annual economic cost of diabetes in 2002 was estimated to be $132 billion, or one out of every 10 health care dollars spent in the United States. Diabetes is the fifth deadliest disease, and currently, has no cure.