In the face of an increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes and a workforce shortage of skilled diabetes education health professionals, many people appear to miss receiving basic diabetes education. Addressing this issue, the concept of ComDiab developed in 2009 as a Sydney South West Integration Program (SSWIP) initiative. The aim of ComDiab is to provide timely initial diabetes education to those affected or at risk of diabetes, by up-skilling registered nurses, enabling them to facilitate basic diabetes group education within their local communities. ComDiab further aims to promote and create awareness of specialist and private diabetes services.

Australian Diabetes Council (ADC) was invited to develop the ComDiab training program, which has evolved to become a fully managed and quality assured ADC program. The program is delivered by Australian Diabetes Council (ADC) Cert IV TAE Credentialled Diabetes Educators. RN’s are required to attend 3 day workshops, and complete four modules of ADC e-learning pre and post workshops. Registered nurses (RNs) are then observed and assessed delivering community sessions, and are required to attend an annual review day.

Since 2010 21 RNs from metropolitan and regional NSW have been trained, 9 have met competency standards and a number have discontinued the program for various reasons.

To date, community education groups (CEGs) are available on a monthly basis in seven metropolitan and rural areas of NSW (Southern Highlands, Hunter New England)

Increasing interest by RN’s, wider acceptance by local diabetes educators, and increasing community attendance has been seen over the last six months. Multicultural needs have been identified and addressed with the attendance of interpreter at CEGs as required.
Collaboration with University of Western Sydney has been initiated to further evaluate the impact of ComDiab on facilitators and participant’s knowledge, behaviour and access to appropriate services.