Our Community Diabetes Service is celebrating the news that its patient education programme has received the ‘seal of approval’ from the Quality Institute for Self-Management Education and Training (QISMET), having recently completed its triennial reaccreditation process.
QISMET is an independent not-for-profit body that supports self-management education providers and commissioners to “achieve the highest possible quality service for people living with long-term health conditions”. It provides accreditation of self-management education interventions against two best practice Quality Standards: QIS 2020 and SS2Q.
QIS 2020 is the ‘gold standard’ for the self-management education sector, and has been designed to assure the delivery of consistently high-quality self-management programmes.
Having completed the full reaccreditation process, QISMET commended the service for its provision of three “very well-managed programmes”, stating: “The commitment shown by staff interviewed to the concepts of self-management was very high, and this was reflected in the excellent feedback that has been obtained from programme attendees, as 100% of participants reported that they had improved their confidence in self-management.
“There is a small core team delivering the three programmes. All the interviewees were passionate about their service and gave numerous positive anecdotes from participants about their experiences of the sessions.
“All in all the programmes, and the approaches to their delivery, are excellent. The transition during the pandemic to alternative methods of meeting the needs of people with diabetes is to be commended. This has been a difficult time which the team has managed well, and they are in a good place as they move further to a blended approach to self-management education.
“Overall, all of the requirements of QIS 2020 were found to be met, and Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust is to be congratulated on this.”
The report went on to recognise a number of strengths, including:
- A passionate team who are fully committed to the principles of self-management
- The team worked effectively to rewrite the programme under the pressure of the pandemic, so that it was available virtually
- Very positive feedback from participants
- Covid Safety team in place to assess venues
- Those whose first language is not English are offered an appointment with an interpreter
- Those with a learning disability or mental health disorder are seen one to one with a carer/support worker as required
- There is a competency-based programme that all educators must undertake before delivering the programme independently or unsupervised. This involves weeks of shadowing, visiting other teams such as podiatry and retinal screening, and practising delivery with supervision prior to them being signed off as able to deliver the course independently.
In response to QISMET’s glowing report, Sarah Scammell, Lead Diabetes Clinical Specialist Nurse, said: “We are very proud of this wonderful achievement. We are a small team, and everyone has worked extremely hard to achieve this level of recognition during very difficult times.”
The Community Diabetes Service comprises a small core team of specialist nurses, dietitians and diabetes educators/facilitators, who support people with type 2 diabetes in managing their condition.
Its patient education sessions are led by a diabetes specialist and can be offered as a two to three-hour face-to-face group session at a local venue (including a GP surgery, community hospital or community centre), or as an online course using Microsoft Teams.
It offers three different programmes: Diabetes and You; Diabetes, Food and You; and Diabetes, Insulin and You.
People can self-refer to any of the three patient education programmes using the form on our website. To find out more visit https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/our-teams-and-services/diabetes
