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Designed to enable unregistered nurses to understand their role in supporting people at high risk of developing diabetes and type 2 diabetes. This practical course enables unregistered nurses to return to practice and use the learnt skills under the mentorship of a practice nurse or chosen supervisor. The course includes the HCA PITstop competency assessment tool, adapted from the Trend competency framework for unqualified team members (Trend, 2016)

Day 1 programme includes the care pathways for high risk and type 2 diabetes, and the screening tests associated with the annual reviews, how to maintain the Practice ‘diabetes box’ containing blood glucose/ketone monitoring equipment and hypoglycaemia treatment, the scope of practice of HCAs in diabetes care and the competency assessment/mentorship requirements.

 

Day 2 programme includes details of the local structured education for people with type 2 diabetes, the Diabetes Prevention Programme for people at high risk and any local lifestyle referral options. It covers five elements of healthy living: sleep, social engagement, stress, moving and diet and how to motivate patients to achieve their goals.

Working in partnership with the West London RIPEN (Reflective Interprofessional Education Network), to develop their advanced HCA workforce, we designed the HCA PITstop course for Non-Registered Nurses.

The course was to meet the specific needs in local primary care systems with a  focus on recall, motivational interviewing and development of a “diabetes box”, and linked competencies to put these into practice

Dr Yasmin Razak, RIPEN & Diabetes Transformation Lead, was particularly impressed with the quality of the training materials used by the Pitstop team and how the skills taught could support Primary Care.

Feedback from the successful pilot reflected the incredible buzz in the room from all the participants.
The best course I have been on. I was provided with so much clinical knowledge and understanding that no course has provided before.

Both PrePITstop programmes join PITstop as RCGP accredited courses. The assessor panel continue to be impressed with the quality of the resources submitted, describing the courses as excellent quality, with no changes required. The 1-day and 3-day PrePITstop courses are proving to be popular, as they both incorporate key STP requirements, including the three targets (HbA1c < 58mmol/mol, cholesterol < 5mg/dL, blood pressure < 140/80mm/Hg), increased attendance to structured patient education and active participation in the diabetes foot care pathway by primary care teams.

The 1-day course is great for GPs who are not necessarily the diabetes lead in their practice but want a good diabetes update on most aspects other than injectables. As one GP in East Kent emailed:
I have read on your website that you offer a 1 day pre-PITSTOP intensive course.

Insulin is one of the top five high-risk medications worldwide. This two-page handout links to the key documents and www.diabetesonthenet.com 'Six steps to insulin safety' e-learning module. All healthcare professionals supporting people on insulin must keep up-to-date with insulin safety advice.

The new partners prioritised diabetes as one of the first long-term conditions to tackle. They sourced and attended PITstop in 2015, then returned with a plan of action involving audit and proactive follow-up, combined with a goal for 75% of the practice clinical workforce to attend diabetes training in 2016. Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group were keen to support the training initiative and a variety of training was marketed and delivered, including a 3-day PrePITstop and 1-day key message PrePITstop, a PITstop course and two half-day introduction to PITstop workshops for clinicians who already held a qualification in enhanced diabetes service delivery.

Audit and mentorship have been key to the success of Shakespeare Health Centre, to help embed the skills. PITstop inspired them to return to clinical practice with the resources, ideas and motivation to make a difference to patient services and outcomes.

We exhibited at the Diabetes Professional Care conference, Olympia on 16th & 17th November. Jon and I were joined by Dina Kapoor, clinical pharmacist from Shakespeare Medical Practice in Hayes. Both Dina and Jon have attended the PrePITstop and PITstop courses so were well placed to discuss the training with attendees. The conference was well attended and feedback from the attendees was extremely positive. We had a great deal of interest from commissioners, diabetes lead clinicians, medicines management leads and individual healthcare professionals.