Carlisle and District diabetes training in nursing and residential care homes

Two consecutive projects targeting nursing homes and residential care homes were initiated in the former East Cumbria. The projects were based on the findings of two audits investigating the prevalence of diabetes in nursing and residential care homes in East Cumbria. The audits highlighted inconsistencies of care and concerns relating to all aspects of diabetes.

One‐off funding was received and provided for a nurse educator, dietitian and secretarial support to plan, implement and evaluate a training programme to meet the needs of the homes involved. Two to three training sessions were delivered on site to 50 homes. The sessions covered all aspects of diabetes care for managers, nurses, carers and catering staff. Specific concerns highlighted by staff during the training resulted in further training sessions being offered to cover hypoglycaemia, blood glucose monitoring and dietary issues.

A positive response was received from all staff with good attendance and commitment to training; certificates of attendance were issued to staff attending all sessions of the training programme. Staff expressed an improvement in their knowledge of diabetes.

Files containing practical information and new blood glucose meters were given to each home. The training programme was tailored to the needs of each home and delivering the training on site enabled the trainers to meet the needs of each home. Every home was left with protocols of care with easily measurable criteria, which could be utilised to assess the quality of diabetes care. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons.