Abstract:

Background:
The incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) has a rising tendency globally. Education is an essential and integral element of successful treatment of patients with DM. Nurses providing education must be well-educated in the field of diabetology themselves.

Goals:
The goal of this study was to find and evaluate available tools for measuring and evaluating the level of knowledge of nurses in the field of diabetes mellitus.

Methods:
It is designed as Scoping Reviews. Search for primary studies for the 1983-2020 period was conducted in five specialist electronic databases: Scopus, Web of Science, Ebsco, Erih and Pubmed. A total of 10 relevant sources were identified following classification based on the criteria. The search for research studies was based on a combination of the following key words: diabetes mellitus, knowledge test, measuring tool, nurse. Criteria for elimination: studies 1982 and older, not related to research in the field of diabetes mellitus, not concerning research of the knowledge of nurses, does not concern a primary study, the full text is not available, or a clear research methodology is not available.

Results:
Evaluation of the knowledge of nurses in the field of DM has not been widely studied. Two of the most frequently utilized standardized tools for evaluating the level of knowledge of nurses about DM were identified. These were a 45-item multiple-choice Diabetes Basic Knowledge Test (DBKT) and its modifications - the MDBKT (Modified Diabetes Basic Knowledge Test), and a 23-item multiple-choice Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT), known since 2015 as the Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Test (MDKT) or also the revDKT. Another 4 testing tools were only used within the terms of a specific study.

Conclusion:
Standardized tool - the 45-item multiple-choice Diabetes Basic Knowledge Test (DBKT) and its modifications, and the 23-item multiple-choice Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT) and its modifications were found to be the most frequently used tools for the assessment of nurses´ knowledge of diabetes. Although the tests is widely used, its psychometric properties are not optimal. Future modification as well as re-validation on different target groups is desirable.

Keywords:

Diabetes mellitus, knowledge test, scale, nurse, educator.