Rochdale hospital staff take part in pioneering course

Date published: 17/03/2006

Staff at Rochdale Infirmary and Birch Hill Hospital will become the first in the country to take part in a new course in caring for hospital patients with diabetes.

The Warwick Diabetes Care 'Managing diabetes in hospital clinical areas' course is the first national course of this type that is university accredited.

The post registration diabetes education course is offered to staff at Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the hospital, as a national pilot, in conjunction with Warwick Medical School, the University of Warwick.

The University has been given a  £40,000 educational grant by Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals to pilot and evaluate the course across the hospitals run by the Pennine Acute Trust, with a view to offering it nationwide, if successful.

Leading and co-ordinating the course, which starts in July, are Pennine Acute diabetes specialist nurses Gill McAllister and Jane Bryom.

Gill said: "Staff are hungry for more education in the quality of diabetes care, and this course is seen as an investment in education for nurses working on the wards. Patients with diabetes often end up staying longer in hospital than a comparable patient without diabetes. By running this course, and increasing the skills of staff, we hope to help cut that chance. We’re sure that we’ll have a lot of interest in the course.”

Diabetes specialist nurse Jane Byrom said: "Hospital staff are already doing a lot of good work, but with Pennine having four hospitals, serving four very different communities, the course will provide additional education for staff, stop avoidable admissions to hospital and help give patients with diabetes more effective care."

Covering all aspects of diabetes care in the hospital setting, clinical experts such as consultants and pharmacists will help with the course, covering topics including:

• The impact of illness on diabetes and diabetes on illness;
• An update on diabetes and current context of diabetes care;
• Holistic care;
• Care during investigations and day case surgery.

Rosie Walker, senior teaching fellow at the Warwick Medical School and course director said: "Pennine Acute was an ideal Trust to take forward the first certificated course for hospitals.  Both Gill and Jane have worked closely with the University and were initially trained to lead certificate courses for community health staff.  They will now be trained to lead courses in hospitals and will undertake two days of intense training in June. Their enthusiasm and commitment will be an important contribution to the success of the course at Pennine.

“Following the completion of the pilot programme, the University will be undertaking rigorous evaluation of the course which will show the benefit to hospitals of structured education."

Nationally, 20 per cent of all hospital beds are occupied by patients with diabetes, and the condition also affects a higher-than average number of patients in the Pennine Acute Trust area, which covers Bury, North Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale