An education care pathway for people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes

The journey towards providing a minimum standard of education for people with diabetes began with the publication of the National Service Framework (NSF) for diabetes (DoH, 2001a). The NSF highlighted the importance of structured education in enabling people with diabetes to manage the condition on a day-to-day basis. Trusts were challenged with the task of developing education programmes that would meet national recommendations (DoH, 2003). This article describes the development of an education care pathway for people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The pathway includes both individual and group education sessions, patient-held records and a comprehensive patient-held education folder. The authors also report the results of a pilot study, performed in both primary and secondary care, undertaken to evaluate the care pathway in people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.