Integrate interactive, competency-based diabetic foot care training into continuing professional development, supported by organizational resources¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 7 claims (5 for, 2 mixed) · 2 studies (1 review, 1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review recommends that structured, interactive and hands-on diabetic foot care training be embedded in institutional curricula and professional development, emphasizing experiential learning over passive lectures or purely online teaching. It further recommends tailoring content to nurses' prior experience, progressing from basic definitions to complex cases, and pairing training with available assessment tools and formal authority for nurses to conduct foot examinations.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Interactive workshops and practical classes rather than traditional lectures or online-only delivery
• Tailoring to nurses' specific needs and prior experience
• Organizational support including equipment (10-g monofilaments, tuning forks, portable Doppler devices) and allocated time for training

Constraints¶

• The review notes this is a reasonable interim strategy pending higher-quality randomized trials; certainty of evidence is very low
• Educational programmes alone are insufficient; adequate resources and organizational support are required

Target Learners¶

• Practicing nurses in hospitals, outpatient clinics, primary care centres and home-care settings
• Community nurses and care workers

Target Learning Goals¶

• Diabetic foot risk assessment and neurovascular assessment
• Correct use of monofilaments and tuning forks
• Footwear assessment and patient counselling

Claims¶

• Educational programmes are consistently associated with statistically significant improvements in nurses' knowledge of diabetic foot care across nine quasi-experimental studies, with very low certainty of evidence [+W]
• Educational programmes are associated with significant improvements in nurses' diabetic foot care practice, measured in seven of the nine included studies [+W]
• The overall certainty of evidence for educational programme effects on nurses' knowledge and practice is very low (GRADE), driven by bias, inconsistency and imprecision [~W]
• An interactive workshop produced higher post-test knowledge scores than an e-learning course of equivalent content among nurses [+W]
• Post-intervention knowledge and practice scores are positively correlated, suggesting education should be designed to bridge the knowledge-practice gap [+W]
• Nurses begin with low baseline knowledge of diabetic foot care, and educational qualifications may moderate post-training knowledge gains [+W]
• Resource mismatch, missing incentives, and discontinuous post-training support constrain the sustainability of training transfer [~W]

Related Strategies¶

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Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Al‐Me'ani Mohammad, Alqaisi Omar, Dibas Mohammed, Al‐Aaraj Heyam, Rubbai Yousef. (2026). Effectiveness of Educational Programmes on Knowledge and Practice Related to Diabetic Foot Care Among Nurses: A Systematic Review. Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism. https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.70324