Breakthrough appointment for European diabetes nursing
The future of diabetes nursing in Europe received a boost this month following the appointment of Professor Angus Forbes as the newly created Federation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND) Chair in Clinical Diabetes Nursing at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery at King’s College London. The position is a collaboration between FEND, King’s College and the Diabetes Centre at King’s College Hospital (KCH).
Diabetes is a diverse and dynamic field of health care. The world pandemic of Type 2 diabetes and the rising incidence of Type 1 make this a critically important topic in global health and the need for high quality diabetes care has never been more acute. The prevalence of diabetes threatens to overwhelm health care systems across the Europe and in addition to this there are challenges in the nursing workforce.
From a UK perspective diabetes has been identified as priority area for development in terms of research, health care practitioner education and service development and NHS London’s Diabetes for London plan is now being implemented. Professor Forbes will be partly based at KCH in an area of London with a particularly high rate of problematic diabetes, so the positive impact of the role will be felt within the community immediately.
Therefore key priorities of Professor Forbes’ as Chair in Clinical Diabetes Nursing will be to generate and disseminate high quality state of the art clinical knowledge and practice to improve and extend the contribution of nursing to diabetes care across Europe. Professor Forbes will realise these priorities through the development of internationally recognised programmes of research and education that reflect the clinical needs and priorities of people with diabetes within Europe, working with existing networks of diabetes nurses and researchers.
The Chair is jointly funded by FEND and KCH. The role has been funded for three years, with a view to extending for a further two years on delivering key objectives.
FEND was established in 1995 and has established a unique voice for nurses working in the field of diabetes care, research and education in Europe. It is recognised as a positive influence by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe and many national diabetes nursing organisations. FEND holds an annual conference attended by nurses other relevant health care professions in diabetes. Professor Forbes will give his inaugural address at this year’s conference in Stockholm in September.
As Professor Forbes will be based both within King’s and KCH, he will be part of King’s Health Partners (KHP), one of only five Academic Health Science Centre’s (AHSC) in the UK accredited by the Department of Health. This unique collaboration brings together King’s, one of the world’s leading research-led universities and three of London’s most successful NHS Foundation Trusts – KCH, Guy’s and St Thomas’, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts. Diabetes is a key platform of the AHSC’s strategy, and is also one of the four foci for the recently accredited South London Health Innovation and Education Cluster (HIEC), of which the AHSC is the leading partner, so Professor Forbes’ appointment is particularly timely.
As part of the Diabetes Centre at KCH Professor Forbes will also work with Professor Stephanie Amiel, who has led a pioneering multi disciplinary team that collaboratively developed the UK’s Type 1 patient education programme, Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating (DAFNE), and which also successfully achieved islet cell transplantation in a Type 1 diabetes patient to resolve intractable problems with hypoglycaemia. Islet cells are obtained from donor pancreases and are transplanted by injection into the liver of the recipient. Once in the liver, the cells develop their own blood supply and begin producing insulin. This breakthrough had not been achieved in the UK before and has major implications for diabetes sufferers, as it is hoped that further refinements of the technique could mean that insulin dependency may be a thing of the past.
Anne Felton, FEND President, said of Professor Forbes’ appointment: ‘The pandemic of diabetes requires leadership from the many disciplines in diabetes care, research and education. The establishment of the FEND/KCL Chair in diabetes nursing signifies the essential contribution that the profession of nursing will make in confronting this grave societal challenge.’
Professor Stephanie Amiel, Professor of Diabetic Medicine at King’s and Consultant in Diabetes at KCH, said: ‘We are very excited to be hosting the FEND chair at King’s. Diabetes pioneered the development of specialist nursing and the further involvement of diabetes nurses is crucial to all our plans in to provide first class diabetes management and prevention to all in need. We look forward to supporting Angus to drive the evolution of diabetes services locally and through Europe.’
Professor Forbes said: ‘I am excited by the opportunity afforded by this post which will help enhance the contribution of nurses to the care of the many millions of people with diabetes across Europe.’