[An area-wide survey of problems of domiciliary care of diabetic patients].

Diabetes is a chronic and invalidating illness, therefore diabetic patients are eligible for home care. In one of the districts of the Veneto region the main data on diabetic patients cared at home were collected, in order to know their main characteristics and problems, and the problems nurses encounter in their daily care. Three meetings were planned with home care nurses, to update their knowledge and render more effective and appropriate their care plans, The main problems are related to a. the lack of a caring project at district level, b. the lack of care protocols for the glicemic monitoring and for the management of the hypoglicemic crises; c. the lack of nurses' autonomy in the management of insulin therapy; and d. the time needed for the care of diabetic foot. A course was planned, in order to offer answers to the problems encountered by nurses and proposals for changes were made, included a nurse-doctor integrated record for diabetic patients.