title: Evaluation of the impact of a diabetes education curriculum for school personnel on disease knowledge and confidence in caring for students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  School personnel may lack knowledge of diabetes and be unprepared to address the needs of students with type 1 diabetes. This project evaluated the effectiveness of a type 1 diabetes education program for school personnel on increasing knowledge of diabetes and confidence in caring for students with diabetes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two types of diabetes education programs were created for school personnel. The basic program provided a 60-minute overview of diabetes. The expanded program, intended for volunteer health aides, provided participants with a more in-depth overview of diabetes during a 180-minute session, including demonstrations of how to assist students with insulin injections. Instruments were created to assess changes in diabetes-related knowledge and confidence in caring for students. Separate knowledge instruments were created for the basic and expanded programs. Knowledge instruments were administered before and after delivery of the education programs to both groups. Confidence instruments were administered before and after for persons completing the expanded program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 81 school personnel participated in the basic (N = 44) or expanded programs (N = 37). Overall knowledge regarding diabetes significantly increased in both the basic and expanded programs from baseline (p < .001). Confidence in caring for students with diabetes also increased from pretest to posttest, both for overall confidence and each individual item (p < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Educational programs offered for school personnel can lead to increased knowledge and increased confidence in caring for students with diabetes, which may assist school personnel in addressing the needs of students with diabetes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy Practice, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. ctsmith@purdue.edu
authors.forename: Cory T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Aleda M H
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Kimberly S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Plake
authors.forename: Christiane L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Nash
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000628:therapy*; D005178:Faculty; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000379:methods; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012572:School Health Services; D020377:Self Efficacy; D014838:Volunteers / Q000193:education*; D000078329:Workforce