October 15, 2025
By Donna Sutton, Diabetes Clinical Lead, Spirit Health
As diabetes specialists, we see every day how stretched our workforce is. Diabetes nurses and healthcare teams are managing ever-growing caseloads, with limited time to spend with each patient.
Too often, appointments become about firefighting – checking immediate concerns, repeating advice and drip-feeding information that patients need to hear to better manage their condition. When in fact, structured diabetes education (SDE) can be presented to patients as a part of diabetes care – actually freeing up time for diabetes teams.
The impact of one course vs. multiple appointments
When patients attend an SDE course like EMPOWER’s, they receive the full picture in one place. In just four hours, they are equipped with knowledge and strategies that would otherwise take multiple one-to-one nurse appointments to cover. For the workforce, that means time spent reinforcing, not repeating, and space to focus on more complex clinical needs.
Better education, better outcomes
When patients understand their condition and feel confident managing it, they make better day-to-day choices. Research shows that our structured education can reduce HbA1c levels by 16.4%[1], in turn cutting the risk of complications and lowering hospital admissions. For the NHS, that translates into significant cost savings. For healthcare teams, it means less crisis management and more proactive care.
Supporting workforce wellbeing
By shifting the responsibility of structured education to providers like EMPOWER, we can release clinical time back into the system. This not only makes care more efficient, but it also helps protect workforce wellbeing. Reducing the pressure on already-stretched nurses and clinicians is critical if we want to tackle burnout and improve retention across diabetes services.
Equity of access
SDE also ensures consistency. Without it, the quality and amount of information patients receive can vary widely depending on the time available in appointments. Embedding structured education as standard means every patient has the same opportunity to gain the knowledge they need to live well with their condition. Plus, SDE courses can be adapted to the patient – for example using translators or breaking the course down into shorter sessions.
A call for change
The evidence is clear: structured diabetes education works. The question is no longer should we provide it, but why isn’t it already embedded as standard practice everywhere? With diabetes prevalence rising, the current model of care is not sustainable. If we want to reduce pressure on the workforce, improve patient outcomes, and save costs for the NHS, structured education must become a core part of diabetes care.
If you’re interested in learning more about our diabetes education courses, just visit our programmes or email askempower@spirit-health.com.
[1] Sutton D et al. Structured Diabetes Education: virtual access was as effective as face-to-face access to a structured diabetes education programme (EMPOWER T2n) for people with type 2
