Using the DAFNE curriculum, course book and activities book

The DAFNE curriculum can be used to deliver DAFNE and 5x1 DAFNE courses. It will be helpful to have your curriculum to hand for this next stage of your training. The curriculum is organised into nine sections. We’ll now look at each section in detail.

Section 1 of the curriculum is the pre-course appointment. The pre-course appointment information is very similar to Remote DAFNE, so explore each participant’s expectations and answer their queries or concerns. Recap what is involved in a DAFNE / 5x1 DAFNE course and provide information about the course and discuss any barriers to course participation. Ensure participants are clear about, and are able to commit to, the time required for their DAFNE / 5x1 DAFNE course. Collect their baseline data. Discuss and agree any changes to their insulin regimen in line with the DAFNE starting regimen shown here. Section 1.8 is the starting regimen you are familiar with, and note the different stages in the course at which the participants will change to the DAFNE insulin regimen; the time they change depends on the type of DAFNE course they attend. Participants on a DAFNE course make insulin changes the night before or the morning of day 1. Participants on a 5x1 DAFNE course make insulin changes the night before or the morning of Week 2. An exception might be if a basal insulin change is agreed prior to the course in which case you may wish to arrange a prescription change before the course begins. This can be especially helpful if there may be delays in filling the prescription which would delay the participant access to the new insulin. If the pre-course appointment is face to face, consider asking your participants to bring their Glucose and ketone checking equipment and their insulin pens to the appointment so that you can replace faulty equipment if needed. Section 1.9 relates to the lunch time CP counting session; it’s so important to set the participant’s expectations of this during the pre-course appointment. Explain to your participants that the purpose of this session is to explore the CP content of many different types of foods so the participant is able to build up their knowledge of a wide range of foods for the future. They're also able to check the accuracy of their CP counting in a safe and supportive environment. Section 1.10 is about the participant pack. Your participants will need the pack to be able to take part in a DAFNE / 5x1 DAFNE course. Make arrangements for these resources to be available at your venue on the first day of the course. Section 1.11 is about the DAFNE team pre-course review; it’s recommended that the educators involved in the course meet with the DAFNE doctor to review the course participants’ medical notes and information recorded at the pre-course appointment. This meeting can provide clinical support for insulin adjustment decisions and an opportunity to highlight targets / areas of concern.

We’ve looked at Section 1 about the pre-course appointment, so let’s now look at Section 2 – How to use this curriculum. Then we’ll look at the remaining sections in more detail. Section 2.1 shows the daily timetables for the DAFNE course which are laid out the same way as this example. Section 2.2 shows the weekly timetables for the 5x1 DAFNE course.

Section 3 is the largest section of the curriculum and is used directly for course delivery. Each lesson plan includes its title and the flow and timing of the session. It also shows the purpose of the session, and participants’ learning outcomes (as you know from Remote DAFNE, the learning outcomes are what the participants should get from the session). Following on from the learning outcomes is the list of resources required for session delivery, and then you have lesson plan. This includes all the details of any classroom based activities, as well as the resources and expected time required for each section of the lesson plan. A new feature is the ‘Content Checklist’ at the end of the lesson plan – when you have finished delivering your session, this acts as a quick reference guide so you can check you have delivered all the essential and expected content, as well as any appropriate optional content. Remember, essential and expected content should always be delivered in a session; optional content is delivered when it is appropriate to group members. All content is included in the lesson plan.

Section 4 contains one lesson plan which is specific to the DAFNE course and is NOT used in 5x1 DAFNE. The lesson plan is for the session ‘Glucose checking and target ranges’ and is delivered on the Monday of the course, or the first day of the DAFNE course. It follows the same format as all the lesson plans in Section 3.

There are four lesson plans specific to 5x1 DAFNE delivery and you will find these in Section 5 of your curriculum. In the 5x1 DAFNE course, glucose checking and target ranges is split across three weeks so there are three lesson plans. Section 5.1 is ‘5x1 DAFNE Glucose 1: Glucose and ketone checking’. Section 5.2 is 'Glucose 2: DAFNE Glucose target ranges and the DAFNE diary’. Section 5.3 is ‘Glucose 3: HbA1c, time in range and the reasons for optimal Glucose management'. There is a session at the end of each week which is unique to 5x1 DAFNE and you’ll find this is Section 5.4, which is ‘Taster for next week, summary, goal and action plans'.

Sections 6 – 9 contain supporting information that you are already familiar with because it’s also included in the Remote DAFNE educator manual, namely, abbreviations and symbols in Section 6, the DAFNE philosophy in Section 7, and an overview of the educational theories underpinning DAFNE in Section 8. Section 9 is the Oz DAFNE Facilitator Numeracy supplement. This final section is particularly relevant to face-to-face delivery as there may be more opportunity to support participants with numeracy through classroom based activities.

Make sure you are familiar with the content of the course book and when content from the course book is referred to in the lesson plans before delivering your DAFNE course. Sections are colour coded and the colour matches the related sections in the activities book. The lesson plans include references to section titles in the course book so use the contents list to find the relevant page. Useful figures in the course book are referred to in the lesson plans as well. Use the list of figures to find the relevant one. Useful tables in the course book are referred to in the lesson plans, so again, use the list of tables to find the relevant one you're looking for. It may be helpful to mark content, figures and tables in the course book with page markers so you can find them easily.

The activities book includes examples, activities and personal notes for participants to complete as part of their DAFNE course. A key is given at the beginning of the activities book to denote examples, activities and notes, and those keys are shown here. This slide shows how a combination of a personal note and an activity can support a participant’s learning about hypo treatment. This page demonstrates an example of how to record snacks in the DAFNE diary. Remember, answers to activities are also included in the back of the book. The DAFNE quiz and answers to the quiz are also included in the activities book. Make sure you are familiar with the activities and their answers referred to in the lesson plans for sessions during the course.