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Winners of the 2002 DESG Awards |
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Page 2 of 2
Best abstract on Therapeutic Patient Education presented during the 2002 FEND Conference, Budapest, 2002:
Charlton, J, Elliott, A I, Alexander, W A (Dr), McKnight J A (Dr): Travelling with diabetes - an internet resource for education (Abstract No 4)
Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland
Background: Worldwide travel for people with insulin treated diabetes poses potential problems, especially when journeying away from tourist areas. Published healthcare information is limited and geared towards package holidays. Patients reported difficulties that better information and preparation could have prevented.
Methods: To offer practical and specific information to both professionals and patients we created a website (www.diabetes-travel.co.uk) with support from our local Diabetes UK branch. This contains information about preparation, insurance, documentation, time zones and insulin regimens, transporting insulin and advice on keeping well. Patients contribute specific information about countries visited. Hyperlinks and addresses provide contact points for replacement equipment on longer journeys and also generated funding for the project. We have also designed leaflets containing website information.
Result: From March 2001 to January 2002 there were 2536 visits to the site. Feedback from visitor/patient and specialist nurses on both content and layout were very positive. A current questionnaire evaluation suggests that Diabetes Specialist Nurses in Scotland would use the site for patient education and had patients who had experienced problems when travelling which could have been prevented by following advice from the site.
Discussion: Future plans include: patient evaluation of pre-trip education sessions to develop a Diabetes Specialist Nurse pack, including website contents (disc & leaflets), education checklists and protocol; also additional hyper-links with other sites.
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