## Introduction Diabetes self-management encompasses the daily decisions and behaviours that people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes use to maintain glycaemic control, prevent acute crises, and slow end-organ damage. When self-management breaks down — missed insulin doses, dietary non-adherence, deferred blood glucose monitoring — patients deteriorate into diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), hyperosmolar hyperglycaemic state (HHS), or accelerated nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy. The consequences of missed education are preventable ER visits, amputations, and dialysis initiation. Top 3 nursing priorities: 1. Establish the patient's current self-management literacy: glucose monitoring technique, insulin injection sites and rotation, hypoglycaemia recognition and treatment. 2. Identify modifiable barriers (cost of supplies, health literacy, food insecurity, injection anxiety). 3. Confirm the patient can state their target BG range, when to test ketones, and when to call their diabetes care team or go to the ED. Common NCLEX trap: Candidates assume that teaching insulin injection technique is the priority when the patient is hypoglycaemic at the time of teaching. Stabilise the patient's BG first (15–15 rule), then educate. Education delivered during an acute hypoglycaemic episode has no retention.