Environments for the development of disease management competencies of children with diabetes mellitus: Children's experience

Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes mellitus alters the child's and their parents' life. The child must acquire necessary competencies that would help manage the disease. The child with diabetes mellitus can receive information from a variety of learning environments. Research object is – environments for the development of disease management competencies of children with diabetes mellitus. Research aim is to reveal environments for the development of disease management competencies of children with diabetes mellitus by highlighting what helps a child with diabetes to acquire disease management competencies, and the challenges occurring while acquiring those competencies. Research methods: theoretical – analysis, comparison and generalization of scientific literature; empirical – a semi-structured interview method has been used for the collection of data; method of content analysis has been applied for the study of research data. Participants of the research were children with diabetes mellitus. The empirical study revealed that environments for the development of disease management competencies of children with diabetes mellitus are the following: environment of medical institutions and the professionals working there, family environment (family members), and the environment of camps for children with diabetes mellitus, including organizers of camps and specialists and volunteers invited. The research determined challenges of developing disease management competencies of children with diabetes mellitus in various learning environments.