The NHS Diabetes Safe Use of Insulin e-learning module: is it making a difference to health care professionals?

NHS Diabetes, along with clinical colleagues, established a ‘Safe Use of Insulin’ e-learning course in response to an alert from the National Patient Safety Agency and supporting data from the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit which demonstrated a worrying scale of insulin errors for in-patients with diabetes in England. The e-learning course has been offered freely to all health care professionals across England from June 2010. As of 16 August 2012 (26 months from module launch), there have been 83 986 health care professionals registered, with 58 188 (69%) of these having completed the module. A three-month follow-up evaluation was conducted inviting 8142 people who had completed the module to participate in a short web-based survey, with responses received from 1246 (15.3%). Evaluation data showed that the course led to increased staff confidence in prescribing, handling, or administering insulin. Changes in individuals' working practice, and departmental or trust policies or procedures at NHS trusts across England were also identified. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons.