Diabetes Training in Residential Homes and Care Organisations May 2008
15 May 2008
Intended Audience
All staff who work within a care organisation and work with people with diabetes. This includes managers, heads of care, trained nursing staff, residential and home care staff, catering staff
Health Area
Based in Cumbria but will provide training in other areas of the UK. A private initiative. No funding available from the NHS
Background
Continuing work based on the original Carlisle and District Diabetes Training in Residential and Nursing homes 2001 - 2004 which were last submitted to this data base in 2005. In October 2006 the work was awarded the Arun Baksi Award for team based innovation in diabetes care and published in Practical Diabetes International in Jan/Feb 2007. The work has been mentioned as a case study in DOH report -The Way Ahead:The Local Challenge March 2007. Since then we have been advised to market the training as there was no further funding available from the NHS. 2 new packages of training were designed and are offered to care homes who were given advice and guidance re obtaining funding from Care Sector Alliance Cumbria. The work has been presented to the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health's Care Home Conference June 2007, followed by an article in the Caring Business Journal August 2007. As a result of this we were approached by Owen Mumford to discuss training their nurse advisors to deliver training on site in care homes in the whole of the UK. We worked in partnership with them to design a bespoke diabetes and diet training programme which was completed in April 2008 and is currently being rolled out across the UK . We are Diane Heeley-Creed RGN, nurse educator and Katrina Brown RD Freelance dietitian. We both work part time in the NHS and also work privately under the umbrella of nutrition 4 health.
How this service improves
It is raising awareness, knowledge and skills in the social and care environment for staff who otherwise often do not receive any training. This improves the well being of the increasing numbers of frail, elderly residents who have diabetes. Most of these residents also have complex health conditions often including the complications resulting from their diabetes.
Why this service is a good example of shared practice
The work is tailored to the needs of the environment and addresses the individual concerns of each home. It is delivered on site to enable more staff to attend. This work has attracted a lot of interest and is a neglected area where there is confusion as to what good diabetes care is and what constitutes best practice.
Objectives
To improve the care for residents with diabetes so that their quality of life is enhanced through improved diabetes control. Give care staff an understanding of what diabetes is, what are the issues that concern them in their area of care. To clarify the relationship between diabetes, diet, timing of meals and snacks and the importance of good nourishment for residents with diabetes.Ensuring that the training is practical, easy to understand with an opportunity for discussion for individual concerns
Service Provided
The new packages look at diabetes care relevant to residents needs including what is diabetes, hypoglycaemia; signs, symptoms, possible causes and treatment; footcare; dealing with illness and diabetes; dietary issues and concerns such as poor appetites, weight loss. Practical workshops, were incorporated with updates of new devices, treatments, blood glucose monitoring techniques, meter care, the Eatwell plate and menu planning. Time is allocated to design their own protocol of care. An individual leaflet is given to each member of care staff who attends and an information file is given to each home on completion of training
Accountability
The training is conducted under the trainers own professional standards and codes of practice. Disclaimers are always given to state that the training is a guide but that staff should always seek advice from local health care professionals regarding specific medical and dietary issues for individual residents
Project Aims
To focus on the needs of people with diabetes who receive care and show how staff from care organisations, with an improved knowledge of diabetes can improve diabetes control and enhance quality of life for those they look after.
Evaluation
Since the work has been recognised by the Arun Baksi Award , the resulting interest has enabled a greater number of people within the UK to recieve training and so improve knowledge and care for a larger number of people with diabetes. We continue to receive enquiries from all parts of the country about our method of training.
Resources
Roche continue to supply meters. We utilize information from Diabetes UK website. The work is self funded and run with the nutrition 4 health business
Learning
That knowing our audience, working with the homes, teaching on site and addressing the barriers to learning and using a step by step approach to the subject made it an enjoyable experience for all as expressed in the evaluations. We have found that our training method and approached is successful and has worked well. We continue to learn from it and work to make it better
Additional Information
We hope to continue to work in this area and welcome all enquiries
Contact
Katrina Brown and Diane Heeley-Creed
Nutrition 4 health Andrew House Stainton, near Penrith Cumbria CA11 0ES
katrina.brown@virgin.net