Are the resources adoptive for conducting team-based diabetes management clinics? An explorative study at primary health care centers in Muscat, Oman

AIM: The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions among primary health center staff concerning competencies, values, skills and resources related to team-based diabetes management and to describe the availability of needed resources for team-based approaches. BACKGROUND: The diabetes epidemic challenges services available at primary health care centers in the Middle East. Therefore, there is a demand for evaluation of the available resources and team-based diabetes management in relation to the National Diabetes Management Guidelines. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 26 public primary health care centers in Muscat, the capital of Oman. Data were collected from manual and electronic resources as well as a questionnaire that was distributed to the physician-in-charge and diabetes management team members. FINDINGS: The study revealed significant differences between professional groups regarding how they perceived their own competencies, values and skills as well as available resources related to team-based diabetes management. The perceived competencies were high among all professions. The perceived team-related values and skills were also generally high but with overall lower recordings among the nurses. This pattern, along with the fact that very few nurses have specialized qualifications, is a barrier to providing team-based diabetes management. Participants indicated that there were sufficient laboratory resources; however, reported that pharmacological, technical and human resources were lacking. Further work should be done at public primary diabetes management clinics in order to fully implement team-based diabetes management.