An inter-professional education programme for diabetes care in London

Over the years there has been a steady increase in avoidable referrals from primary to secondary care for newly diagnosed diabetic patients. Audits have shown that diabetes referral rates were rising yearly. Secondary care is becoming overwhelmed with the heavy workload and increasing cost, which also led to compromising care for complex patients. This led to the design and implementation of a diabetes based inter-professional education (IPE) programme. The IPE programme was taught in cycles. Each cycle consists of 10 sessions. One session was taught for one afternoon a week over 10 weeks. On the 11th week an OSCE style end of course assessment was performed. Health care professionals (HCPs) from different professions were taught in the same classroom, using the same material. A re-audit of diabetes referral rates showed a change in referral ratio post-programme. Qualitative interviews using Kirkpatrick and Barr's hierarchy were performed 2 years post-programme to assess learners' outcomes. Results show that the effects of the programme were sustained beyond 2 years and that these changes were carried into practice. There was a change in HCPs attitude and perception and more importantly it showed improvement in patient outcomes. This represents a novel IPE programme for diabetes care which has shown to be able to increase confidence, capacity and scope of care provided by HCPs in the community.