School nurses are central to the health of children with diabetes (DM). In two states, a novel telementoring program, Diabetes in School Health (DiSH), was designed to support DM education for school nurses. Aims were to increase school nurse knowledge & comfort with routine DM care, and to build a network for sharing experiences & challenges with DM care. Sessions include brief didactic presentations followed by practical discussion and sharing of scenarios to collaborate and learn strategies to improve DM care. Recruitment of school nurses was via email. DiSH sessions started in Jan 2020 (WI) & Apr 2021 (WA) and are ongoing. This study reviewed the first 3 years of data from 25 DiSH-WI & 16 DiSH-WA sessions. Session attendance: mean 58 WI & 108 WA school health personnel, mostly nurses. Qualitative data included highlights from sessions’ didactics and discussions. In both WI and WA, recurrent themes included importance of communication, building relationships, and meeting students where they are. Table 1 reports challenges shared and lessons learned. Regional differences include applying regulations governing care in school. DiSH, a novel format for DM education of school nurses, provides a platform for locally relevant discussion of complex yet practical themes, which can be difficult to address in traditional educational modules. Dissemination of DiSH programs to other states is underway.
A.J.Pollock: None. W.N.Beaton: None. B.A.Burgess: None. K.B.Eitel: None. S.Logel: None. L.J.Ondeck: None. E.Sundberg: None.
