Class of 2016 Abstract / Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess patients’ perception of the review of basic diabetes self-management skills as administered by nursing staff during hospitalization in our academic medical center to determine if the program should be continued, modified and/or expanded. Methods: This descriptive study included patients 18 years and older with a diagnosis of diabetes admitted for any reason to Banner – University Medical Center Tucson (BUMC-T) - between October- December 2015. A phone interview was conducted within 7 days of the patient’s recorded discharge date to assess each patient’s perception of the review they received during their inpatient stay. The questionnaire collected ratings about helpfulness of the medication instructions, understanding of diabetes, and confidence in hypoglycemia management. Data on the likelihood for an outpatient follow-up appointment were collected too. Results: Of the 96 patients included in this study, 44% (n=42) received the basic diabetes self-management skills review, among them 48% (n=20) reported that the review was very helpful, 43% (n=18) reported being very comfortable with understanding diabetes, and 48% (n=20) reported being very confident with hypoglycemia management. Out of 50% of patients referred for outpatient follow-up for diabetes management, only 38% made an appointment. Conclusions: Most patients that received the basic diabetes self-management skills review feel comfortable with diabetes management and its understanding. Review of basic diabetes self-management skills appeared to be helpful when initiated in a hospital setting; however, measures need to be taken to provide the review to all eligible patients and it needs to be supported by effective planning for outpatient follow-up.

For children with hearing loss, spoken language development often requires the use of hearing aids. Young children often have to rely on their parents or other adults to confirm that their hearing aids are functioning correctly; however, less than 50% of parents check their child’s hearing aids every day. Because of the significant likelihood that a hearing aid malfunction could go unnoticed, it is recommended that children learn hearing aid self-management skills in elementary school and become independent with these skills by middle school. Using the ICF Model of disability, self-management skills should include more than just hearing aid skills, but also skills such as self-advocacy; these can be grouped under one umbrella as “hearing loss self-management skills”. Pediatric self-management skills are associated with improved outcomes for other complex health conditions and have been shown to be responsive to pediatric-focused interventions. While there have been studies to design engaging ways of increasing these hearing loss self-management skills in adults, few have involved children. This study seeks to answer the following two research questions: the first, “What are the baseline hearing loss self-management skills in middle school-aged children?”; the second, “Are educational videos an effective way to increase hearing loss self-management skills in middle school-aged children?”. To answer the first question, children between the ages of 11 and 14 who use at least one hearing aid were asked to answer questions based on the Audiology Self-Advocacy Checklist – Middle School (ASAC-MS) on a scale of “Never/Rarely/Sometimes/Almost all the Time”, to observe their baseline self-reported skills. To answer the second question, a playlist of seven narrated videos with subtitles and visible faces for lipreading was created to address the different topics of the ASAC-MS. The participants were asked to watch these videos and answer the ASAC-MS again. While data collection is not complete, the research team anticipates that most participants will rate their skills in the Rarely or Sometimes categories in the pre-intervention ASAC-MS, and anticipates that the post-intervention ASAC-MS scores will be higher than the pre-intervention ASAC-MS scores. Answering these two research questions is an important step in identifying the needs of current young hearing aid users and identifying ways to meet these needs. Improved hearing loss self-management skills may result in improved speech and language for children with hearing loss in the future.