Diabetes Vignettes

4. ``I am a diabetic. I need sugar now''. Nigel I Jowett

A picture of a holiday maker toour hospital who came in undermy care with a hypoglycaemicepisode. He is a man of 35 yearswho'd had insulin dependantdiabetes since childhood but hadbeen troubled over many yearswith recurrent disabling hypogly-caemic episodes. Unfortunately,he also liked an occasional drinkand collapses were not alwaysinitially recognised as hypogly-caemia. Having got fed up withthis situation, he had tattooed onhis arm ``I am a diabetic. I needsugar now''. Copyright # JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.

Correspondence to: Practical Diabetes International, John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.

Practical Diabetes International invite you to submit a photograph or slide for this series

Nurse Prescribing ConsultationPerhaps the most important issue in diabetes nursing is currently being consulted upon

by the Department of Health. Proposals to extend nurse prescribing were published by

Lord Hunt on 25th October, and responses are invited by 10th January 2001.

You can view the 5 options, which range from no change to rights to prescribe anything

contained within the British National Formulary, and the issues arising with regard to

eligibility and training by accessing the document via hyperlink http://www.doh.gov.uk/

nurseprescribing www.doh.gov.uk/nurseprescribing and I would urge you to do so.

The Forum will be formally responding, so if you would like your views to be included

in this response, please contact me. Alternatively, you may wish to respond individually.

Forum Away DayKindly supported by SmithKline Beecham, the Forum Committee recently held an away

day to consider their action plan for 2000/1. Among the important outcomes of the day

were the following:

1. The new Chair of the Forum, pending elections in 2001, is Eileen Padmore.

Eileen will take over from April 2001, subject to formalities to be completed with her

organisation and the RCN.

2. Several members who have shown interest in working actively with the Forum are to

be co opted onto the committee, to further speci®c projects.

3. We will be obtaining a detailed breakdown of those members classed as unclassi®ed

or other on our list of members, in order to ensure our materials are relevant.

4. We will approach our colleague Forums in the Field of Primary and Public Health, to

investigate taking part in their events, in order to spread the word of diabetes, in the

important year of 2001.

5. We will approach our colleague organisations and publications in diabetes nursing

with a view to holding a national diabetes nursing conference in 2002.

Joint Advisory Group on Diabetes Nurse Education and Nurse PrescribingThe next meeting of this important group, to include other advisers forming a profes-

sional accreditation body for the national course, will be on December 1st. With the

consultation described above making nurse prescribing for DSNs more of a reality than

ever before, this group is bound to be in¯uential and has already had input into the NSF

cross cutting issue on workforce planning and professional education.

RCN changesMany people will already know that Christine Hancock, the General Secretary of the

RCN is to stand down next summer, and that there has been a vote carried to admit

health care assistants in some capacity to the College. There has also been a positive

vote to increase subscriptions! In terms of the latter, we have been campaigning to

ensure some recompense for Forum Chairs and we understand that this may be forth-

coming now the subscription has been increased.

Research MoneySome years ago, a research working party of the Forum completed its work with an

excess of £3000. This money has been given equally to the Forum and to the UK

Association at the request of the working party members. We want this money to be

spent wisely, so suggestions from Forum members as to suitable research projects are

welcome.

Rosemary Walker, Chair

C/O RCN, 5th Floor, 20 Cavendish Sq, London, W1M 0AB

Email: rosebud@btinternet.com

The Royal College of Nursing: The Voice of Nursing20 Cavendish Square, London W1M 0AB. Telephone: 0207 409 3333 Fax: 0207 647 3435

RCN Diabetes NurRCN Diabetes Nur sing Forum Nesing Forum Ne wswsThe Royal College of Nursing Diabetes Nursing Forum represents diabetes nursing on a number of national groups and committees a s well as within the RCN