DSN Forum Initiatives

Back for season 2: A collaborative conference bringing together heart failure, renal and diabetes specialist nurses, from BSH Nurse Forum, ANN UK and DSN Forum UK.

The British Society for Heart Failure hosted expert organisations to come together on 9th March 2023 to change the direction of heart failure. The DSN Forum was represented by Amanda who signed the declaration to work together to save lives, by changing the trajectory of heart failure: Reducing deaths by 25% over the next 25 years.

The DSN Forum UK are a supporting organisation working with the Action4Diabetes charity. The charity does some amazing work across South East Malaysia where access to healthcare is a huge challenge. The charity helps fund insulin supplies for children and young people with type 1 diabetes without which the outcomes would be fatal.

There are currently no reliable insulin supplies in the country. Can you help us to increase access to insulin? If you have any unused, in-date insulin that is no longer needed please get in touch with the Help Madina Charity (registered charity no. 1147700).

Insulin supplies can also be sent directly to:

Dr Rohit Sethi, Phoenix Health Group, 9 Chesterton Lane, Cirencester, GL7 1XG.

The first ever collaborative conference bringing together heart failure, renal and diabetes specialist nurses, from BSH Nurse Forum, ANN UK and DSN Forum UK.

Catch up on all of the questions in relation to the updated NICE NG28 type 2 diabetes guidance and what it means for clinical practice.

The Diabetes 101 Twitter team was set up in March 2020 by Beth, Amanda and Prof Partha Kar. This was in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to support people living with diabetes. The team is made up of 16 MDT diabetes HCP's with Tamsin and Vicki also part of the team. This is a voluntary initiative, in which all members give their time in addition to their day to day clinical roles.

After winning the QiC Diabetes Professionals of the Year in 2018 the DSN Forum are now part of the annual awards ceremony judging panel which a huge honour.

QiC Diabetes aims to recognise, reward and share innovative practice demonstrating quality in diabetes management, education and services for people with diabetes and/or their families.

The DPC conference went virtual for the first time in November 2020. The DSN forum were very excited to be a large contributor to this years conference with a specific DSN theatre dedicated to DSN's to showcase their work. Amanda, Beth, Tamsin and Vicki all presented their own sessions showcasing initiative’s in each of their clinical practice.

The DSN Forum were very excited and proud to be involved in the new #UnderstandingDiabetes Campaign in preparation for World Diabetes Day 2020, which also included our involvement in the United Through Diabetes conference that took place on World Diabetes Day 2020.

TikTok is a an innovative place to raise awareness about diabetes and provide education to different age groups of people. This can be done in a fun, short and snappy 60 second video.

We have used TikTok so far or insulin safety week, hypo awareness week and language matters to name but a few. Why not follow us!

The DSN Forum have previously written a monthly newsletter highlighting all the latest developments in the diabetes world. This is has published in the Journal of Diabetes Nursing and can also be accessed via Diabetes on the Net (DOTN).

Our first ever DSN Forum tour in 2019 aimed to raise the profile of diabetes specialist nursing, to inspire the next generation of diabetes specialist nurses and to build a DSN community support network spanning the UK. DSN's across the county gave their time freely to help make the first DSN forum tour a success. We visited diabetes teams in Cambridge, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Southhampton and London.

The DSN Forum UK were nominated and won the Quality in care (QiC) Diabetes Professional of the Year in 2018. This was for our work in founding and setting up the forum and making it what is is today. Initially with a closed Facebook, which now has over 2000 members, we now have every social media channel imaginable! The forum allows DSNs to network at the click of a button, share best practice and is also an area to ask for advice and support.