The ITS Insulin Safety e-learning module is now being offered free of charge to any acute Trust.
The module is for hospital staff who prescribe, prepare or administer insulin. It covers key aspects of the safe use of insulin in the hospital setting.
Dr Kath Higgins, Clinical Lead for Inpatient Diabetes Care at University Hospital Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), who led on developing the module, said: “We created this module in response to both local and national data evidencing harm events which occurred when people with diabetes were admitted to hospital.
“The National Inpatient Diabetes Audit (NaDIA 2019) showed that almost one in three of inpatient drug charts reviewed had at least one diabetes medication error. For insulin-treated inpatients errors were found in two fifths of the charts.
“On the day of the audit, 3.6 per cent of inpatients with type 1 diabetes had developed in-hospital DKA at some point during their hospital stay and 1.4 per cent of all people required injectable rescue treatment for severe hypoglycaemia in the previous seven days of their hospital stay.”
Recommendations in the NaDia 2019 report stated that training should be provided for every healthcare professional who dispenses, prescribes and/or administers insulin.. This recommendation is reinforced in the Diabetes – GIRFT programme national speciality report (Nov 2019) and Diabetes UK: Making hospitals safe for people with diabetes report (2018).
In addition to Dr Higgins, Helen Atkins, Diabetes Advanced Practice Lead at UHL, collaborated with the Leicester Diabetes Centre to develop the module, which was launched in UHL in March 2020 and is one component of the ITS Diabetes eToolkit.
The announcement comes just before Insulin Safety Week takes place, which starts in May.
For anyone who is interested in using the e-learning module across their Trust please contact the ITS Diabetes team using the following email address: ITSdiabetes@uhl-tr.nhs.uk. The module is SCORM compliant which will allow individual trust’s Learning Management Systems to track progress on completion.