Emirates Diabetes and Endocrine Congress 2012 acknowledges important role of education in diabetes management

Welcoming the audience, Dr Abulrazzaq Ali Al Madani said that the 2012 Congress will focus on vital and relevant topics concerning diabetic patients in the region.

More importantly, the four-day congress stresses the importance of diabetes education among healthcare providers and runs parallel sessions to include hands-on courses and workshops designed to build capacity and develop the multidisciplinary personnel who support the patients in their long journey with diabetes.

"The congress this year features specialized workshops supported by Lilly diabetes for diabetes nurse educators who work in diabetes clinics, hospitals and institutions," added Dr.Al Madani.

Diabetes Education is universally recognized as an integral part of diabetes treatment; it aims to enable and empower people with diabetes to self-manage their disease on a daily basis and better control their diabetes. Consequently, educating people with diabetes is a fundamental element in preventing acute and long term complications and reducing the direct and indirect cost of complications.

The role of the nurse educator in clinical practice and in the hospital multidisciplinary team is a new approach to improving the quality of patient care. The nurse educator has specific responsibilities in the evaluation of each diabetic patient. Mostly, the physician's contact time with each diabetic patient is limited, whereas the nurse educator can dedicate more time and transfer invaluable knowledge on the care of diabetes to the patient and their family and caregivers.

Mrs. Inaam Kandil, who heads the diabetes educator team at the Dubai Diabetes Centre, welcomed the integration of the nurses' education and medical updates in the EDEC 2012 scientific programme.

"There is no doubt that the nurse educator must be skilled in this teaching-learning process and should have a good background and understanding of diabetes, including diabetes complications and problems," she noted.

She stressed, "The two-way communication between the healthcare provider and his patient is crucial to start the teaching-learning process."

The dedicated workshops for nurse educators will run in parallel to the main scientific programme. A medial workshop is being delivered by Prof. Abdul Jabbar, Senior Diabetes Advisor for Lilly, giving a general medical overview about diabetes mellitus, followed by a practical session on injection techniques.

The second workshop will feature a live simulation and presentation of the global Diabetes Conversation Map tool, that has been endorsed by the major health authorities in the Gulf region, and that nurse educators can use in the future with their patients.

Diabetes Conversation Map tool is developed by Healthy Interactions with the support of the International Diabetes Federation, and is sponsored by Lilly Diabetes. Through the Diabetes Conversation Map tool, Lilly focuses on people with diabetes and their needs by helping them understand better and manage their disease on a daily basis. It consists of a series of visual and interactive educational tools and follows the latest patient-centred education approach.

"Diabetes Conversation Map tool has been highly valued by doctors and patients across the world and we are very happy to have it endorsed by the health authorities across the Gulf region," said Fadia Doumani, Lilly Diabetes Educator Lead for the Gulf and Near East region.

"By presenting this tool to the nurse-educators from across the Gulf in the form of live simulated sessions, we hope to encourage them in having a more active role in the education of their patients by facilitating group discussions about subjects that represent stressful moments in their journey with diabetes - like starting insulin, understanding how diabetes works and living with Type 1 diabetes," she added.

The nurse-educators' workshops are an opportunity to interact with colleagues from all over the region, share views, experiences and create an opportunity for future collaboration and building a community of nurse educators to advance the level of care delivered to patients across the region.