Diabetes - finding out more

The diabetes resource signposts key evidence-based guidelines, guidance and recommendations for a range of different situations and aspects of diabetes and its care, but is not intended to be comprehensive in coverage.

This section of the resource therefore aims to guide you to important sources of information which you can use to search for further resources and information to support your practice and learning.

These resources were last accessed on 1 November 2012.

Improving your searching skills

An RCN Learning Zone area How trustworthy is your information can help you in researching topics in support of your day-to-day work or studies. The learning is arranged around the RCN competences for information literacy and guides you through some of the issues and activities involved, including using information legally, inclusively and ethically and applying and communicating the results of your information search appropriately.
Visit How trustworthy is your information.

The RCN information literacy competences are intended to support the individual and the nursing team's thinking about information required to inform activities of varying complexity. They are mapped to the Knowledge and Skills Framework - see Finding, using and managing information (PDF 1.4MB) - see how to access PDF files.

Pages for each of the information literacy competences also guide you to learning resources which will help you develop the skills relevant to each competence- see the left hand menu at information literacy competences.

Sources of information on diabetes care

Some of the sources signposted have been referred to throughout the resource but are here described in more detail. For news and networking resources see the section on Professional development.

The sources are arranged in categories.

For sources of news and updates and networks relevant to diabetes care visit the page within this resource on professional development.

UK organisations / special collections 

Included here are key organisations which provide different types of information and activities to support diabetes care.

Diabetes UK
Diabetes UK is the largest organisation in the UK working for people with diabetes and providing practical support and information to help people manage their diabetes. There is a dedicated area for professionals which includes guidance and reports, areas for sharing practice, resources for patients, news and updates.

National Clinic Audit Support Programme (NCASP): Diabetes
NCASP is part of the NHS Information Centre for health and social care and is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) to deliver the National Diabetes Audit which is considered to be the largest clinical audit in the world. The audit covers England and Wales and reports and data from 2003-2004 onwards are available. See also the National Diabetes Information Service below.

National Diabetes Information Service
The National Diabetes Information Service (NDIS), working in partnership with other key organisations, provides "streamlined access to a comprehensive suite of diabetes information products, datasets and tools". You need to register and log in to access some of the products and tools.

NHS Diabetes
The role of the NHS Diabetes team is to support health care professionals, organisations and people with diabetes to achieve delivery of the Diabetes National Service Framework in England. There are a number of work programmes which aim to explore ways to improve specific aspects of diabetes care. The website describes these programmes and brings together news, guidance and tools and includes areas for discussion and the sharing of experiences and practice examples.

NHS Evidence
NHS Evidence is a freely available service that enables access to clinical and non-clinical evidence and best practice for health and social care through a web-based portal. It also has an area of specialist topics, which includes diabetes,  which bring together resources under the following headings: guidance; commissioning; information for the public; ongoing research; medicines.

NHS Education for Scotland: The Knowledge Network
The Knowledge Network in Scotland provides evidence, information, e-learning and community tools. You can limit your search to evidence and guidelines. The search results are categorised according to different types of material or information from specific sources.
The Knowledge Network includes a number of specialist portals, for example:

Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory: Diabetes health intelligence
The Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory (YHPHO) is one of a network of 12 public health observatories working across the UK countries and the Republic of Ireland. The observatories produce information, data and intelligence on people's health and health care for practitioners, policy makers and the wider community with an expertise in "turning information and data into meaningful health intelligence". Each of the English Public Health Observatories has a lead role in a key policy area and the YHPHO is the lead PHO in diabetes.

Clinical guidelines 

Clinical guidelines are systematically developed statements which make recommendations on the appropriate treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions. They should support health care practitioners and patients in good decision-making and reduce unacceptable or undesirable variations in practice (Broughton and Rathbone 2001; Royal College of Nursing 2012).

National clinical guidelines
This page, More about clinical guidelines, in the section of the RCN website on clinical guidelines links to the agencies that commission and develop guidelines in the four UK countries: NICE - National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (England and Wales); SIGN - Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (Scotland); GAIN - Guidelines and Audit Implementation Network (Northern Ireland).

RCN clinical guidelines
Information about the clinical guidelines developed by the RCN in collaboration with other stakeholders. Each guideline is described and there are links to the relevant documents and related online resources.

Guidelines International Network
G-I-N is an international association of organisations and individuals involved in the development and use of clinical practice guidelines. It seeks "to improve the quality of health care by promoting systematic development of clinical practice guidelines and their application into practice, through supporting international collaboration". The Network has the largest International Guideline Library.

Systematic reviews and evidence digests

A systematic review uses a predefined, explicit methodology. High quality systematic reviews seek to: Identify all relevant published and unpublished evidence; select studies of reports for inclusion; assess the quality of each study or report; synthesise the findings in an unbiased way; interpret the findings and present a balanced and impartial summary. (Cochrane 2009; Hemingway and Brereton 2009).

This section also points to other initiatives which aim to support health care practitioners in using evidence-based practice by providing overviews, summaries and digests of evidence-based information and best practice.

Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library database is an essential resource for finding reliable evidence on interventions such as diagnosis, treatments, aspects of health promotion and the organisation of care. Particularly useful is the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews which is now updated monthly. For further information see How to use the Cochrane Library and refer to the Search manual.

Cochrane Primary Health Care Field: P.E.A.R.L.S. Practical Evidence About Real Life Situations
PEARLS are succinct summaries of Cochrane Systematic Reviews for primary care practitioners. PEARLS from earlier years are available. You can search for specific topics within each year. This page lists P.E.A.R.L.S up to 2009, use the left hand menu to access subsequent years.

Prodigy
Prodigy, formerly known as Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS), is aimed at health care professionals working in primary and first-contact care. It provides summaries of evidence-based information and practical know how about common conditions managed in primary care. There are sections for diagnosis and management of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.

NHS Evidence - UK Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments (DUETs)
UK DUETS has been set up to publish uncertainties about the effects of treatment which cannot currently be answered by referring to reliable up-to-date systematic reviews of existing research evidence. The aim is to help those prioritising research in the UK and to give priority to the information needs of patients, carers and clinicians. Currently there are over 100 identified uncertainties about the effects of treatment for diabetes. UK DUETs does not include unanswered questions about the frequency, causes and diagnosis of health problems.

E-libraries 

E-libraries usually enable access to a range of bibliographic databases, which can be used to find journal articles, collections of full text journals and increasingly include e-books. The following are key national e-libraries which can be accessed according to membership and country location.

Royal College of Nursing e-library
Databases include British Nursing Index and CINAHL. Over 1,000 full text journals and over 700 e-books are available.

NHS e-libraries
This page within the RCN website describes the NHS e-libraries in the four UK countries.

Databases and clinical queries 

You can access databases which will help you find articles relevant to your search via the e-libraries above. For databases available via the RCN e-library see Databases to search.

NHS Education for Scotland: CLEAR: clinical enquiry and response service
CLEAR is part of The Knowledge Network in Scotland. It aims to provide clinicians with summarised evidence relating to aetiology, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment queries about patient care. The service is currently being piloted until October 2011. To ask a question you need to log-in via an NHS Scotland Athens username and password. However questions and answers can be viewed without logging in. To find relevant questions and answers there is a search facility and answers are also arranged according to categories, for example Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic.

Trip (Turning Research into Practice) Database
This is a clinical search tool designed to help health professionals identify high quality clinical practice. See the search tips for guidance on how best to search and note that within your results you are able to filter your search according to different types of resource e.g. evidence based synopses, systematic reviews and guidelines. Other databases related to this are:

For sources of news and updates and networks relevant to diabetes care visit the page within this resource on professional development.

References

The items in this reference list are available online and were last accessed on 1 November 2012. Some of them are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

Broughton R and Rathbone B (2001) What makes a good clinical guideline (PDF 406.37KB) . London: Hayward Medical Communications (made available on the Bandolier website).

Cochrane Library (2010) About Cochrane systematic reviews and protocols. The Cochrane Library website.

Hemingway P and Brereton N (2009) What is a systematic review? Second edition. Available on the What is...? series website.

Royal College of Nursing (2012) More about clinical guidelines. RCN website.