Staff profile: Jayne Hodgkiss, Course Director

Jayne Hodgkiss, Course Director for Improving Diabetes Care, tells us about her professional experience, what she most enjoys about teaching at Warwick, and why diabetes education is so important.

What was your background before coming to Warwick and what does your role involve now?

I trained initially as a registered nurse and later a registered midwife. I worked in primary care as a practice nurse before starting a role as a diabetes nurse facilitator and later a clinical nurse specialist in diabetes. My key areas of interest have always been diabetes in pregnancy, having supported the diabetes antenatal and preconception service for many years.

I now work solely for the University of Warwick. I thoroughly enjoy devoting my time to the development of effective diabetes training and education. I still have sufficient time to keep abreast of changes and the fast-moving research that informs our programme. I feel having a clinical background across both primary and secondary care settings gives me knowledge and understanding across the breadth of topics we address on the Improving Diabetes Care programme. I’m also able to appreciate the complexities of patient management and the challenges faced by staff.

What do you teach on our IDC course?
My teaching takes my areas of interest into consideration. I present diabetes in pregnancy, including gestational diabetes and insulin treatment alongside injectable therapies. I also cover other specialist areas such as diabetes and frailty, mental health and diabetes (to include depression and diabetes distress) and Ramadan.

Why should people join our IDC course?

IDC is seen as the leading diabetes programme in the UK with well over 14.000 healthcare professionals having completed the programme to date. Colleagues will often recommend the training to others and primary care networks sponsor whole cohorts of the programme specially for groups of professionals in their own localities. We are very proud of our reputation. The new course is built on that same content, with resources updated to reflect current guidance and new materials added alongside more interaction with course tutors.

Diabetes education is so important as the area is fast moving with new treatments and research. While we envisage students will continue to join the course for the first time, previous students can enrol again. In terms of updating their knowledge base this would be encouraged when reflecting on the changes in evidence-based practice.

What are your favourite aspects of the course?

Our course evaluations have asked for more interaction with course tutors for some time. Being able to change the assessment process on the new course enables tutors to interact with students on a weekly basis. This allows the introduction of more case-based learning which students can apply to the clinical setting.

What do you most enjoy about teaching at Warwick?
I was lucky enough to complete my MSc in Health Sciences (Diabetes) at the University of Warwick in 2010 as a mature student. Being able to impart some of my knowledge following this gave me a passion for teaching and I had a drive to join the diabetes teaching team here at the Medical School. I was lucky enough to join the team in 2016 and since then have seen changes and developments to the suite of courses offered. I’m thrilled and excited to be developing the new ‘Improving Diabetes Care’ programme and look forward to interacting with students in the near future.