Management of the Person with Diabetes

Are you a registered nurse, health visitor, midwife or other healthcare professional? Are you currently working in a hospital or community setting, where diabetes mellitus care forms a significant part of the workload? Our course will advance your skills in this increasingly important area of practice.

As a practitioner with an interest in the management of adults or children living with diabetes, you’ll benefit from this module either to improve your current practice, or as career development at post graduate level 7.

You’ll deepen your appreciation of inter-professional and partnership working when caring for people with diabetes. You'll also develop skills in all aspects of diabetes management, and be able to identify diabetes competencies applicable to your role.

Diabetes mellitus affects every age group from childhood to old age, so you’ll learn to support people as they come to terms with having a long-term condition at any age - empowering them to make choices about the management of their diabetes.

Diabetes is a complex metabolic disorder, involving persistent hyperglycaemia and other cardiovascular risk factors. Recent research has provided clear evidence that improving the control of blood glucose and vascular risk factors will delay and reduce the severity of diabetic complications.

Course content:

• carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism, and the roles of insulin and glucagon
• diabetes mellitus: aetiology, epidemiology, classification, clinical presentation and diagnosis criteria
• the two main types of diabetes: Type 1 & Type 2
• the impact of diabetes: children, young people and adults (including the elderly)
• non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions: lifestyles, oral hypoglycaemic agents and insulin
• the management of acute and long-term diabetic complications.

Our course includes a series of synchronous online lectures, face-to-face tutorials, group work and study pack, and we'll also make use of the virtual learning environment.

Assessment is by way of an essay, which critically analyses the care given to a client with diabetes, supported by research evidence.