Introduction. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is rapidly rising in SSA. Interventions are needed to support the decentralization\nof services to improve and expand access to care. We describe a clinical mentorship and quality improvement program that\nconnected nurse mentors with nurse mentees to support the decentralization of type 2 diabetes care in rural Rwanda. Methods.\nThis is a descriptive study. Routinely collected data from patients with type 2 diabetes cared for at rural health center NCD\nclinics between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2015, were extracted from EMR system. Data collected as part of the clinical\nmentorship program were extracted from an electronic database. Summary statistics are reported. Results. The patient\npopulation reflects the rural settings, with low rates of traditional NCD risk factors: 5.6% of patients were current smokers,\n11.0% were current consumers of alcohol, and 11.9% were obese. Of 263 observed nurse mentee-patient encounters, mentor and\nmentee agreed on diagnosis 94.4% of the time. Similarly, agreement levels were high for medication, laboratory exam, and\nfollow-up plans, at 86.3%, 87.1%, and 92.4%, respectively. Conclusion. Nurses that receive mentorship can adhere to a type 2\ndiabetes treatment protocol in rural Rwanda primary health care settings.
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