Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

11-28 | CHAPTER 11

• Interventions need to be simple, clear and attention-getting in early stages (remember that the person may not want to hear the message). In-depth information is best presented when participants are ready to learn (i.e. in the preparation/action stages). • Interventions need to be designed to bolster the person’s self-efficacy with respect to the new behaviour (“I can do it!”). • Interventions facilitate informed decision-making and commitment to taking action by helping people weigh the personal pros (benefits to themselves and their significant others) and cons (possible barriers or losses to themselves and others) involved. Tips for writing achievable objectives When writing objectives, there needs to be a clear, articulate message that must be measurable. Referred to as SMART objectives, they need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. Recent additions to this acronym also include E for evaluation and R for redo as necessary suggesting that all objectives need to be ‘SMARTER’ (24,38).

Each educational objective should: ✓ Address only one concept. ✓ Identify the expected learning. ✓ Be specific. ✓ Be measurable. ✓ Be patientfocused. Each behavioural objective should: ✓ Address only one behaviour. ✓ Identify expected behaviour of the learner. ✓ Be specific. ✓ Be measurable. ✓ Be patient-driven.

Well written objectives answer (23) : What is expected? By whom? When? How?