Skill development
Nursing roles are changing and expanding. Nursing roles in modern health care incorporate prescribing, physical examination, treatment and diagnosis, referral and patient or carer support.
Another driver for change is the need to understand research evidence and its implications for informing the way the multidisciplinary team plans, organises and delivers care. Mastering this is as much a professional competency as knowing the facts about a disease or a particular technique for delivering care.
Care of patients with diabetes requires a combination of technical and key personal skills. The process underpinning the 'fitness for practice' principle is consistent - that through competence based education and training, new skills and abilities will be developed. This holds true for the diabetic nurse consultant managing a patient caseload and the practice nurse running a specialist clinic within the general practice surgery setting.
From this section of the site you will be able to explore links to further continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities where competency frameworks underpin the development of new knowledge and skills. This is by no means an exhaustive list but should give you a feel for what is available.
Embedding research knowledge into practice requires another skill set. Weighing up the relative merits of the evidence available to you is essential to delivering effective patient care. This will include clinical guidelines, systematic reviews of research (for example, the Cochrane Library) and standards for specific services such as national service frameworks.
There are sections on: