Free online insulin course launched

By Editor
12th September 2017
Care planning

A free massive open online course (MOOC) developed to give healthcare professionals, people with diabetes and carers enhanced knowledge in how insulin works has been launched.

Understanding Insulin is a course offered by the University of Southampton in collaboration with the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust adult diabetes team.

The four-week pop-up course is scheduled to go live on Monday, October 2 and will also further promote the safe and effective use of insulin in the clinical setting.

It is the second time the course has been released this year and it was “well received by international learners”, Dr Mayank Patel said who has been leading the project. Since then a “few tweaks” have been made which were based on feedback ahead of the second release.

The project team said the aim of the course is to “support NHS England’s plan to improve diabetes care for patients”. However, the course is available to everyone, including people with diabetes and their carers and not just healthcare professionals. Anyone can register for access via the Futurelearn platform.

One of the biggest challenges in diabetes care is to help people manage their insulin dosing requirements so that blood glucose concentrations are not too high. To overcome this challenge, the team said they needed to ensure healthcare professionals and patients/carers understood what insulin is and how it works, in order to promote optimal insulin prescribing and administration.

The requirement for upskilling healthcare professionals caring for people with diabetes has been recognised globally, and the Understanding Insulin MOOC aims to contribute to this requirement, providing national and international healthcare professionals with the knowledge they need to manage insulin related issues, such as safe prescribing, factors promoting effective clinical use and how different insulins work in different situations.

The four-week online course will allow the participant coo interact with others globally as well as facilitators and mentors. Once finished the user will receive a certificate of completion. Click here to register.

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