Day 3: Proud to be FIT

So the actual PCN Clinical Director role should be about one session per week (i.e.half a day per week). However at the moment it doesn't feel like it with all the reading, meetings and planning to do.

I have other national roles as well as the day job. One of them is being a member of the Forum for Injection Technique (FIT) UK board. I felt super honoured to asked to be part of such a unique multidisciplinary board. Still to this day I don't think I am worthy to be amongst such stars in the diabetes world. Imposter syndrome is very much engrained in me. I think that's down to the fear of not being good enough and letting others down. The FIT UK Board consists of specialist diabetes nurses, a GP with a specialist interest in diabetes, a sprinkling of pharmacists and an amazing patient living well with Type 1 diabetes. FIT is all about providing guidance for healthcare professionals to practice evidence based injection technique. Also support the delivery of best care and education to people living with diabetes, who use injection medicines to manage their diabetes.

Today was very much a FIT day.

Download FIT UK Guidance

I love being a pharmacist representative on the FIT Board. Just from the interactions from other FIT board members you can feel the passion for furthering patient care and sense the enthusiasm to be just better humans. From my MSc. Advance Clinical Practice studies and natural curiosity to constantly find out 'why?' I find my FIT role feeds my inner geeky beast. I love learning about medical technology and I just can't help but want to understand the evidence that underpins our clinical practice.

My FIT day took me to up to Liverpool. Happy memories of Liverpool from my pre-reg days and my hen do. However after Diabetes UK Conference 2019 I feared Liverpool would never be the same again. It turns out that conference delegates know how to party! The agenda for today mainly consisted of reviewing clinical papers, evidence and co-designing resources to outreach to a wider multidisciplinary healthcare professional audience. Quite simply a dream today for a geek like me.

Geeky me. Off duty casual look. Comfy.

Liverpool proved to be an excellent venue to get the creative juices flowing. Definitely worth the drive. A solid day of critique and review proved to be very productive. I've learnt so much from my FIT peers and I am currently evaluating pen needle safety at my practice.

We should all be:

• using single-use 4mm pen needles to minimise risk of intramuscular (IM) injection

• improving awareness of site rotation for injections

• looking for lipohypertrophy sites at least once a year

Optimising diabetes care from adopting evidence practice for injection technique has so many potential positive clinical outcomes for patients and for a sustainable value-based healthcare model. Possible future PCN project?

Current FIT Guidance link (you may have been referred to this guidance by your local CCG for review of pen needles) http://fit4diabetes.com/files/4514/7946/3482/FIT_UK_Recommendations_4th_Edition.pdf

If you have never heard of FIT, you can follow us on Twitter @FITforDiabetes #FIT4Diabetes

We're also on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FITforDiabetes

We have a website: http://fit4diabetes.com/united-kingdom

If you want to know more about FIT and how your practice can benefit from optimising diabetes care using evidence based injection technique practice; email the team infouk@fit4diabetes.com