Nursing professors' YouTube video highlights the psychological effect of diabetes

Nursing academics have made a video about helping people cope with the psychological impact of diabetes.

King’s College London Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery professors Angus Forbes and Jackie Sturt appeared in the short film on YouTube.

In the video, Professor Sturt, professor of behavioural medicine in nursing, said about 60% of people with diabetes will have 'a significant psychological reaction' to their condition during their lifetime.

She explained that care for diabetes was 'a multi-professional occupation’ involving a wide range of health professionals, the individual and their family.

Professor Forbes, professor in clinical diabetes nursing, outlined the work the faculty was doing to encourage patients to share their perceptions of the problem and find treatments to meet their medical and psychological needs.

He added: ‘For people already affected by the disease the advantages are huge’ as the research has helped to drive the creation of new technologies to make the condition easier to live with.

The faculty’s vice dean for research Alison Metcalfe said more than four million people in the UK currently have a diagnosis of diabetes.

She said the research was ‘a major contribution in helping those people to cope with the challenges that living with diabetes can present’.

The video is one of a series which the faculty has produced, showing its work and research initiatives in maternity care, healthcare organisation and genetics.

It has been timed to coincide with Diabetes Week which starts on Sunday 12 June.

Further information:

King's College London diabetes video