Participation of Health Care Volunteer in Caring for Diabetic Patients: A Case Study of Srikai Subdistrict, Warinchamrap District, Ubon Ratchathani Province

Abstract

Health care volunteers have various roles for helping people’s health in the community. However, there was limitation of the information to participation caring for diabetic patients. This descriptive aimed to explore the participation of health care volunteers in caring for diabetic patients at Srikaisubdisdtrict, Warinchamrap District, Ubon Ratchathani Province. There were 40 health care volunteers participate in the study. The instruments for collecting data consisted the questionnaires and semi structure in-depth interview, focus group interview to share knowledge and experience of diabetic care services. The results found that health care volunteers were participate to caring diabetic patients screening, visiting at home, sharing information and monitoring complications’ diabetic patients. But there were problems and obstacles in this group working that included lacking diabetic retinopathy knowledge (77.5%), lacking knowledge of diabetic foot (72.5%). Most health care volunteers had no time for other community activities (62.5%). They had insufficient computer skill that leading database development was unsuccessful. This study recommended providing diabetes knowledge to new health care volunteers in risk area, and updating diabetes knowledge to current health care volunteers to appropriately analyze community problems.