Assessing the risk of "diabetic foot" in the elderly patient in a nursery office.
Antonio Martínez Sabater, Mª. Francisca Pascual Ruiz.

SUMMARY

Taking care of diabetes mellitus (DM) patients is one of the main chores in geriatric nursery. "Diabetic foot" is the most common problem and it actually entails a great deal of expenses, physically, socialy and economically speaking, as well for the patient as for the community. What we did was an observational and descriptive research about foot cleansing habits in diabetes mellitus patients over 60 years old and we found out a severe lack of chiropody care. Due to the fact their work involves having a close contact with diabetes mellitus patients, nursing professionals become an outstanding agent on an early detection and prevention of the "diabetic foot" in addition of improving healthy cleaning habits.

KEY WORDS

   Diabetic foot, elderly people, nursery, chiropody care.

Vol. 20 nº2-2009