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Remote diabetes training up for national award

A type 1 diabetes training course for health care professionals has been shortlisted for a national award for its move to online learning.

The remote healthcare professional training programme, implemented by DAFNE, provides training to healthcare professionals on how to deliver a new course to patients with type 1 diabetes and has been recognised in the Diabetes Education Programmes for Healthcare Professionals category at this years Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes Awards.

DAFNE, which stands for Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating, provides education courses for adults living with type 1 diabetes and also training for healthcare professionals which enables them to help give people with type 1 diabetes the tools they to lead as normal a life as possible, whilst maintaining blood glucose levels within healthy targets, to reduce the risk of long-term diabetes complications.

The DAFNE team was faced with the challenge of moving courses for both people with type 1 diabetes and health care professionals from face-to-face to a blended online and virtual group format in order to continue to deliver these as safely and efficiently as possible during the pandemic.

To date over 569 diabetes nurses, dietitians and diabetologists from 92 diabetes services across the UK and Republic of Ireland have completed one the DAFNE health care professionals training courses and have delivered more 355 Remote DAFNE courses to more than 1,260 people with living with type 1 diabetes.

Gillian Thompson, National Director of the DAFNE Programme said, “I’m so proud of the DAFNE team for all they have achieved over the past year and a half. It has certainly not been an easy time and they have done a fantastic job in adapting our services so that people could continue to access them safely during the pandemic.

“This is definitely a format we will be keeping going into the future and keep them as engaging and interactive as possible.”