Inaugural lecture for School's European Chair in Diabetes
Professor Angus Forbes, the Federation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND) Chair in Clinical Diabetes Nursing, recently gave his inaugural lecture at the 15th Annual FEND Conference in Stockholm. Professor Forbes’ position is a collaboration between FEND, King’s College London and the Diabetes Centre at King’s College Hospital (KCH).
The lecture was delivered on 19 September 2010 to over 600 delegates. The lecture was titled ‘Progressing Diabetes Nursing in Europe - The Next Steps’. The main themes of the talk were:
- Developing more comprehensive and efficient models for patient education and self-care
- Integrating clinical and psychosocial interventions
- Building more analytical models of care organisation (informatics and e-Health)
The address concluded by outlining some key steps for diabetes nursing in expanding its contribution through integrated programmes of research and professional education. Professor Forbes argued that while nursing has a vital contribution to make to diabetes care in Europe, this contribution demands the continued development of a robust knowledge base together with effective methods for knowledge transfer, to ensure maximum patient benefit.
Professor Forbes said: ‘I see the aim of the Chair as being to help bring nurses in Europe closer together, to develop the quality of the diabetes care provided to help ensure better outcomes for patients. We must also collaborate if we are going to weather the rapid increase in demand for care with the obesity and diabetes epidemics.’
Professor Forbes’ inaugural lecture can be viewed on the FEND website.