TNMU Associate Professor Organized Video Meeting to Raise Awareness of Teaching Staff about Diabetes

In November 14, 2023, Associate Professor of the Department of Pediatrics No. 2 Victoria Furdela organised a video meeting with pedagogical and medical staff of secondary and extracurricular education institutions. The meeting was held with the help of the MS Teams platform. Victoria Furdela is currently the Head of the School of Diabetes for Children and Adolescents in Ternopil.

The video meeting was initiated by the community of parents of children with diabetes in order to raise the level of awareness of educational institutions employees about this disease.

The video meeting was attended by more than 70 participants from educational institutions of the city of Ternopil, cities and towns of the Ternopil region, as well as from other regions of Ukraine (Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Haisyn, Odesa, Kyiv, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Chernivtsi, Zaporizhzhia , Kryvyi Rih, Shepetivka, Mykolaiv, Kalush, Romny).

The event is dedicated to the International Diabetes Day.

At the meeting, the speaker emphasized the constant increase in the prevalence of diabetes in the world and in Ukraine, both among adults and children. The facts and myths about diabetes were thoroughly reviewed, and the differences between the types of the disease were detailed.

The participants were particularly interested in a detailed analysis of the signs of diabetes that a teacher or mentor can notice while at school. Victoria Furdela talked about the acute complications of Type 1 diabetes that can occur during school or in clubs, namely: hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia, and how to provide first aid to a child with diabetes.

The speaker drew the attention of the participants to how to avoid panic and common mistakes if a child gets sick in physical education class or during other school activities, and how to effectively help a child with diabetes.

The presentation also gave modern recommendations on the principles of a healthy diet and daily routine, which must be followed in order to prevent obesity and Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, which are rapidly spreading in our country due to today’s unfavorable factors.

For teachers, useful links to reliable Internet resources were provided, which will help to learn more relevant information about the principles of preserving the health of schoolchildren and to use in lessons or extracurricular gatherings, because we all live in an environment that promotes the development of obesity and diabetes.

The lecture aroused lively interest and discussion. The participants thanked Victoria Furdela for the report and outlined the topics of the next video meetings.