Dissemination of a continuing education program in diabetes to health care professionals

A goal of the Diabetes Research and Training Centers (DRTCs) is to translate advances in diabetes research into improved patient care by providing innovative, state-of-the-art training for health care professionals. This paper is a report on a collaborative DRTC-AADE training project. A 2-day diabetes program developed by the Chicago DRTC was packaged as a Workshop Instructor's Guide with accompanying slides and materials. AADE faculty observed the workshop presented by DRTC faculty and subsequently presented the workshop themselves. The evaluation design involved comparing a workshop presented by the DRTC faculty with a workshop presented by faculty from AADE. Three components were included in the evaluation: the participants' evaluation, a commitment-to-change evaluation, and the faculty observations. When comparing workshops, few differences were observed in participants' or faculty observers' evaluations. Moreover, participants at both workshops were equally successful at meeting goals related to improving their diabetes education practice behaviors. Dissemination of the program has been expanded and the workshop has become part of AADE's national continuing education efforts.