Diabetes has a great impact on a person’s life and it is expensive both for the individual and for the society. Diabetes is
a disease with political focus on preventing both the disease and its complications.
Patients with diabetes have photographs taken of the retinas in order to detect the diabetic changes needing treatment. The patients have their eyes examined by nurses and nurses inform the patients about the condition of their eyes.
This article describes how nurses are educated in ophthalmology and in reading the photographs of the retina. The digital camera has changed the possibilities for nurses to inform the patients and has increased the demands for added nursing skills.