Whilst not referring to a diabetes nurse, I was recently at a meeting, for diabetics (organisation not important), where the guest speaker was the local specialist Dietician, to talk about diet This was just after a lot of publicity of Dr Michael Mosely's Blood Sugar Diet book.
I think it's safe to say she wasn't a fan. The standout moment of her responses to me came when I asked her what her reaction was to some of the success stories, following the diet, or similar. That was when she told me that "people like that simply don't exist",
All I could say was "You mean people like me?" I nearly burst a blood vessel.
I accept that so many HCP's have so much n their plates they can't invest in the reading and research we do. Adding to that that it's my belief that so many of the nurses we see on a routine basis at our GP surgeries may have done a brief course (some hours or a day, maybe), but they do the Diabetic Clinics because they have been delegated to them by the practise. They probably do the smoking cessation and Asthma clinics on a similar basis.
HCPs are between a rock and a hard place. Their practise Partners will expect them to comply with NICE Guidelines, with little or no autonomy to flex the practise party line or customise their advice too much.
It's tragic, but having worked in the NHS (not in nursing), until I saw the direction it was heading, I know how difficult it can be to push that boulder against the hill, even when there's a personal passion. When I left the NHS, I retained my registration for a few years, then allowed it to lapse as I realised there was no way I was going to practise again in either the public or private sectors.
xx
