Nursing internship students' knowledge regarding the care and management of people with diabetes: A multicenter cross-sectional study

Background: Nursing students in their final year of study will soon become responsible for the care and management of people with diabetes, and they need to be knowledgeable to provide adequate information.Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess nursing students' knowledge regarding diabetes care and management.Design: A descriptive cross-sectional multicenter study.Settings and participants: A convenience sample of all nursing students' internship enrolled at three government universities in Saudi Arabia.Methods: 306 Saudi nursing students were surveyed with a self-administered questionnaire of the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. The second part contained 23 multiple-choice questions of the Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Test. Data were collected from July to September 2022.Results: The overall percentage of correct responses was 49.28 %. There was a significant difference between sex, the university attended, attendance in courses related to diabetes, and diabetes management guidelines in any course and their knowledge about diabetes care and management (p = 0.024, 0.001, 0.036, and 0.038, respectively). There was a significant difference between nursing students' general knowledge and insulin use knowledge (p = 0.001). A multiple regression analysis revealed that the university attended was the only statistically significant factor (p = 0.001).Conclusion: Nursing internship students are likely to be responsible for providing people with diabetes care and management once they qualify. Inappropriate knowledge negatively affects the care and management of people with diabetes. Information related to diabetic insulin therapy should be provided in more detail in the nursing curriculum.