Diabetes - professional development

This page brings together information about different types of resources that you can use for professional development.

These resources were last accessed on 1 November 2012. Some of them are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files. They are arranged under the following headings.

Events 

Diabetes UK conferences and training
National and international conferences and events for health care professionals working in diabetes care and research including details of the Diabetes UK annual professional conference.

RCN Events and conferences
This area of the RCN website provides information about RCN events for all healthcare professionals held across the UK. This includes eventa held by the RCN Diabetes Forum.

Learning materials

RCN Learning Zone: CPD online learning
The RCN's Learning Zone provides online continuing professional development (CPD) topics that are relevant across the whole nursing team. These are mapped to the 'Principles of Nursing Practice' (PNP) and the 'Knowledge and Skills Framework' (KSF) dimensions. The topics include:
Diabetes essentials which is designed to provide an overview of the core concepts of diabetes; diagnosis and current treatments and roles and responsibilities in regard to treating patients with diabetes. It is relevant to all registered nurses, student nurses, midwives and health visitors, health care assistants (HCAs) and assistant practitioners working in any health care setting or nursing specialism.

For other learning areas available to RCN members which are relevant to personal development, clinical skills, skills for learning and RCN activist skills see RCN Learning Zone.

NHS Diabetes e-learning modules
NHS Diabetes have produced a number of e-learning modules to promote safe use of insulin  and non-insulin therapies which can be freely accessed:

Nursing Standard learning zone articles

These are articles from the Nursing Standard published since 2009. Most of them are from the continuing professional development section of the Nursing Standard journal. The full text of these can be accessed via the RCN eLibrary by selecting E-Journals and and using the A-Z list to find Nursing Standard.
The details (most recent first) are:

Visit the RCN eLibrary (you will need to log in with your RCN membership number).

For information about sources of information you can use to find further articles see Finding out more.

Networks

Foundation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND)
FEND aims to promote the professional role of the diabetes nurse and the delivery of evidence based care for people with diabetes throughout Europe. It works in collaboration with other European wide organisations.

NHS Diabetes membership/forum
Membership is free and is via registration on the website. Members will be consulted on key developments and will be sent information relative to their field as well as the monthly news email briefing and quarterly membership newsletter. A discussion forum is also available to members.

NHS Diabetes Networks
NHS Diabetes manages a series of specialist network "to ensure effective two-way sharing of the most up-to-date guidance, tools, best practices and resources". There are networks for different areas and aspects of care for example: Paediatric Network; Footcare Network; Care Planning Network; Commissioning Network.

NHS Diabetes: Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse (DISN) Group
Information about this group appears in the Networks area of the NHS Diabetes website. The Group has been in existence since February 2004 and aims to "provide a forum for DISNs to share ideas, best practice and offer peer support, striving to effect change and influence practice". The Group has its own secure forum and document library where registered users can discuss and share thoughts, ideas and documents.

RCN Diabetes Nursing Forum community
The online communities are designed to bring members together around specific interests and areas of practice and to facilitate communication and interaction. The Diabetes Nursing Forum community includes news and features and the group's newsletter 'DiaBites' and members can also access the RCN Discussion Zone.

Primary Care Diabetes Society
"The aim of the society is to support primary care professionals to deliver high quality clinically effective care, in order to improve the lives of people living with diabetes."

News and updates 

Diabetes UK: News, updates and alerts
Updates are intended to provide health care professionals with the latest information. Medical alerts include warning and product recalls and the Diabetes Bulletin acts as a news service. These can all be accessed online.
 
NHS Diabetes news
NHS Diabetes works to raise the quality of diabetes care in England by supporting and working with the health care community and people with diabetes. This page brings together news and events. There is also access to a news archive.

NHS Evidence bulletin - Eyes on Evidence
A monthly e-bulletin which provides updates on new and important evidence and key developments on the NHS Evidence portal. You can subscribe to the Eyes on Evidence e-bulletin.

RCN Diabetes Forum:  Latest news

You may also find useful two e-bulletins produced by the RCN which have a broader coverage:

Quality and Safety e-Bulletin -  issued fortnightly and organised around key themes such as patient safety, quality improvement tools and techniques, patient focus, and eHealth.

RCN Research Bulletin -  a weekly e-bulletin produced by the Research and Innovation Team which focusses on the latest developments in research and innovations.

The Diabetes Elf
This resource aims to keep users up-to-date with "important and reliable diabetes research, policy and guidance". It is managed by an information scientist who has been searching for, appraising and summarising diabetes research evidence as part of his work since 2006. You can sign up to receive regular updates.

Research   

Organisations funding and undertaking research.

Diabetes UK: Research
Diabetes UK is one of the largest funders of diabetes research in the UK and communicating information about the research funded is an important part of the organisation's work. Diabetes UK also provides details of the research funded in its research project directory.

Institute of Diabetes for Older People (IDOP)
The mission of the institute is to enhance the quality of diabetes care for older people through new initiatives in clinical practice, audit and research; and to provide a forum for scientific interchange between health professionals and scientists as well as involving people with diabetes, their carers and families. The institute is based at the University of Bedfordshire.

King’s College, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery: Pioneering new diabetes partnership
The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery has announced plans for a new clinical academic centre for diabetes nursing, in partnership with King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Foundation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND). The Centre will develop and expand vital research into caring for and supporting people with diabetes, within a Europe-wide network. The three year funding programme will begin in 2013.

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR): Focus on diabetes
This website focuses on the research that the NIHR is doing to help combat diabetes. The site includes information about projects in progress  in the form of case studies and describes how people with diabetes can get involved in clinical research. Published findings from research studies are organised under broad subject categories.

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) UK Diabetes Research Network (DRN)
The UK Diabetes Research Network is a network of primary and secondary care centres throughout the UK supported by the Department of Health for the purpose of conducting high quality clinical research in both the commercial and academic sectors. The co-ordinating centre for this network is a consortium between Imperial College London, based at the International Centre for Circulatory Health and the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism. This co-ordinating centre manages eight Local Research Networks (LRNs) and has established links with the diabetes research networks in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

RCN Research Bulletin -  a weekly e-bulletin produced by the Research and Innovation Team which focusses on the latest developments in research and innovations. See also RCN Research and Innovation Team.

Warwick Diabetes Research and Education User Group
The User Group was formed in 2002 as part of Warwick Diabetes Care , a department of the Warwick Medical School. The group provides advice on all types of issues that may be raised by the research team at Warwick.

Role development 

To learn more about the roles and responsibilities that all nursing staff have in diabetes care and specific competencies related to this care see the RCN learning area - Diabetes essentials: Roles and responsibilities.

Royal College of Nursing (2006) Specialist nursing services for children and young people with diabetes (PDF 1.4MB)
This document sets out the role and qualifications of nurses who specialise in paediatric diabetes care and makes recommendations about educational preparation. It also reinforces the necessity for these nurses to be at the forefront of providing services for children with diabetes.

Skills for Health diabetes competences
Skills for Health has developed a range of competences on aspects of diabetes care in children, young people and adults. The competences describe "what individuals need to do, what they need to know and which skill they need to carry out an activity".

TREND-UK  (2011) An integrated career and competency framework for diabetes nursing third edition (PDF 612.4KB)
The framework is the product of a collaboration between the professional bodies representing nurses who work in diabetes care co-ordinated by TREND-UK (Training, Research and Education for nurses in Diabetes-UK). Groups represented include the Royal College of Nursing's Diabetes Nursing Forum. This is the third edition of the framework updated in line with developments in diabetes nursing roles and responsibilities over the past few years. The competence statements for each area are grouped according to five levels of competency which are: unregistered practitioners; competent nurse; experienced or proficient nurse; senior practitioner or expert nurse; consultant nurse. Many of the specific competencies presented here are common to the Skills for Health competences.