New DSN career and education framework

By Editor
7th March 2019
CPD

The first-ever career and education framework for new in post Diabetes Specialist Nurses caring for adults has been published.

The ‘Career and Education Framework For Diabetes Specialist Nursing’ aims to standardise job titles, differentiate levels of practice and inform academic provision.

Developed by Diabetes UK and TREND-UK along with a host of other partners following extensive consultation, it also aims to provide a standardised approach to the development of diabetes-specific nursing skills through competency assessment.

The framework is aimed at registered nurses who provide diabetes care or specialist diabetes care, commissioners and providers of diabetes services and academic institutions who provide diabetes education for nurses. It is also aimed at helping to guide employers.

It provides guidance leading to enhanced delivery of care for people with diabetes in both general, non-specialist and specialist diabetes services by:

  1. Providing a structure for career development, training and education of registered nurses who provide care for people living with diabetes.
  2. Providing information relevant to higher education institutions (HEIs) in the development of diabetes nursing educational programmes.
  3. Promoting a standardised approach to diabetes education, enabling practitioners, employers, commissioners and people living with diabetes to have greater clarity about the role of the Diabetes Specialist Nurse, and level of education and competence which correlates to an individual’s job title.
  4. Providing a point of reference to help identify and develop the knowledge, skills and competence in the care and management of people with diabetes through accredited programmes, and development opportunities that target not only professionals but local service needs.

The required qualifications were agreed by the University of Leicester and Swansea University, although seeking education providers locally is encouraged by the framework.

The framework was launched at the Diabetes UK Professional Conference 2019 on Thursday, March 7. Alongside the framework, a new version of the ‘Position Statement: Defining who is a Diabetes Specialist Nurse’ was also published.

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