Celebrating diabetes nursing with TREND-UK

The past two editorials in this journal were, quite frankly, depressing, so I thought it would be fitting to share something  positive with you, especially as it is the last Journal of Diabetes Nursing of the year. It is often all too easy to focus on the problems in our profession, rather than congratulating ourselves on the hard work that we do and the people we help.

During October, TREND-UK (of which I am Co-Chair) held our fifth annual conference; one in London and one in Manchester. This is the first year we have held the same conference programme in two locations and this was because of increasing number of delegates over the past four years. This year the conference was kindly supported by AstraZeneca.

Over 300 DSNs and practice nurses attended the two events along with many other healthcare professionals, including research nurses, pharmacists and podiatrists.

The varied and interesting programme included in-depth reviews of the recent NICE guidelines on chronic kidney disease, type 1 diabetes guidance and the also the controversial draft type 2 diabetes guidance. 

Three workshops covered travel and diabetes, steroid use and diabetes, and recreational drugs and diabetes. The concluding session explored safety in diabetes, admission avoidance and bariatric surgery. The speakers did a fantastic job and there was healthy participation from the audience, making for two very interesting and informative events. The nurses in the audience were able to use the day as participatory CPD for their revalidation requirements.

Delegates were able to take some helpful resources away from the conference, including, from the travel workshop, a template of the letter that people who carry insulin can present to a customs official before boarding a plane. There was also the new TREND-UK leaflet entitled Type 2 diabetes and steroid tablets that can be downloaded for free from the TREND-UK website, www.trend-uk.org. 

All the presentations given during the conference will be available for a fixed period of time for the delegates to download. All delegates will be notified via email when they are available.

The evaluations from the day were excellent, showing us that the programme fulfilled the needs of nurses working in diabetes care. TREND-UK always welcomes ideas and topics for use in future events, so if you think we need to discuss a specific topic in next year’s conference, please do let us know by contacting [email protected]. 

Lastly, TREND-UK would like to thank AstraZeneca for sponsoring the events and ensuring that nurses working in diabetes care have access to high-quality and relevant diabetes-related education. Thanks also to SB Communications Group for organising the event.

Details of next year’s event will be available in the spring. Don’t hesitate in booking your place as demand was high this year and we are expecting similar demand next year too.