Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

SELF-MANAGEMENT EDUCATION & SUPPORT: PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT| 11-37

The person in the leadership role facilitates group interaction and helps provide direction to accomplish the task of the group. Address the role of the educator within the context of the group discussion up front; the educator may be a discussion leader or simply be present to organize the participants’ discussion of a topic. It will depend on the purpose of the group within the larger educational program. The educator may be a leader for sharing sensitive experiences, such as complications of diabetes. Other tasks, such as application of a problem solving strategy, are best done by the participants themselves, with the educator assisting if requested/needed.

Brainstorming Brainstorming is a modification of the group discussion that stimulates learners to go beyond conventional solutions and verbalize their own ideas or thoughts more freely.

Planning effective brainstorming sessions • Brainstorming works best with groups (<12 members), but can be done one-on-one as well. (This is one of the skills used in motivational interviewing to encourage personal choice and collaboration.) • The issue/goal of the session must be clear. • Remember that you are attempting to generate as many ideas as possible. • Focus on quantity rather than quality of ideas. • Emphasize that freewheeling is welcome (i.e. any idea should be welcomed without judging its merit each time). • Emphasize that ‘hitchhiking’ is desirable; the idea is to generate ideas. • Discourage criticism; establish this rule at the onset. • Plan how you will record the messages • Plan how you will end the session; summarize the collected thoughts.