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Online competency-based tool for Diabetes
Frequently asked questions /
Registration can be completed online at www.aus-cdep.com
If you have been given a special registration key code to give you free access to Aus-CDEP, please make sure you have it when you register otherwise you will be automatically passed through to PayPal for payment.
If you have any problems or require support, please contact Jasmin King (jk698@medschl.cam.ac.uk)
Aus-CDEP is free to all staff in South Western Sydney Local Health District region due to funding provided by local stakeholders. A small fee is charged for staff outside this locality.
This funding is used to support the Aus-CDEP e-learning platform's administration, IT infrastructure maintenance and ongoing e-learning development. This charge is $50 Australian Dollars per person and allows full access to the site for a 2 year period. Organisations are able to purchase registrations in bulk and are eligible for receiving a discount if more than 25 registrations are purchased.
Online payment via PayPal is supported by the site. Alternative payment methods are available on request. Please contact Jasmin King (jk698@medschl.cam.ac.uk) for more information.
We recommend that you do not use an out-of-date internet browser such as Internet Explorer (versions 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10).
Aus-CDEP will work on these versions, but as Microsoft no longer supports these versions the user experience may be poor.
For the best user experince, please download an upgraded version of Internet Explorer to your device or choose another internet browser such as
You will be asked to choose an appropriate knowledge level (core, intermediate, diabetes specialist, diabetes expert or diabetes consultant) when you register. This level should be chosen according to your role and level of contact with people living with diabetes.
For example, if you are a practice nurse who delivers diabetes care in a general practice, the appropriate level for your role may be diabetes specialist (which correlates to level 3 in the UK national diabetes frameworks). The national diabetes competencies within a topic in the framework are accumulative, so someone for example at a diabetes specialist level will need to demonstrate competencies at core, intermediate and diabetes specialist levels.
Aus-CDEP is currently offering core and intermediate levels, which are in line with levels 1 and 2 of the national nursing and dietetic diabetes competency frameworks. We will be developing more advanced levels of the topics in due course.
CDEP's registration levels mirror the 5 different levels of competencies detailed in the Diabetes Competency Framework documents.
They are:
Core - Minimum level for any staff member working with people living with diabetes. Receptionist; Assistant in Nursing; Wardsmen; Orthotists; Optometrists; Pyschologists; Podiatrist; Plaster Technician; Phlebotomists; Dietetic Assistant; Podiatry Assistant; etc
Intermediate - Roles that have regular contact with people living with diabetes, but are not specialists in this area. Ward Nurse; Practice Nurse; Nursing Home Nurse; Prison Nurse; Mental Health Nurse; Community Nurses; Paramedics; A&E staff; GP; Junior Medical Officer; Registrars; Consultants; Dietitian; Podiatrist; Psychologists, Directors of Nursing; Discharge Liaison; Day Surgery Hospital Nurse; etc.
Diabetes Specialist - Roles that directly support people managing their diabetes. Practice Nurses with a special interest in diabetes; Diabetes Educator-Dietitian; Diabetes Educator-RN; GPs with a special interest in diabetes; etc.
Diabetes Expert - Roles that intensively support complex patients with diabetes. Diabetes Educator-CNS; Diabetes Educator-Senior Dietitian; Endocrinology Registrar; etc.
Diabetes Consultant - Roles that are responsible for managing a specialist caseload as well as leading service design, workforce planning, business case development, etc. Diabetes Educator-CNC/NP/NUM; Diabetes Educator-Senior Dietitian; Senior Podiatrist; Endocrinologist Specialist; etc.
In the main, they are derived from 3 UK-based diabetes competency frameworks namely:
Core and intermediate levels are assessed by completion of a range of multiple choice quizzes; each competency is mapped to a series of questions;
Higher levels of competency / skills (diabetes specialist, diabetes expert and diabetes consultant levels) will involve demonstration of a skill through case studies and other methods.
All levels are accumulative as per the Diabetes Competency Framework, so roles requiring a higher level of diabetes competencies will still need to complete the lower levels prior to embarking on these more advanced levels.
Aus-CDEP automatically offers you all the relevant and available levels and topics suitable to your diabetes skills level you selected during the registration process.
You are able to change your diabetes skills levels at any time in 'my account' section of the website.
100% pass mark, for all competencies tested in the multiple choice question format, is required as staff need to demonstrate pure knowledge in these assessments.
Each multiple choice question series (quiz) can be taken up to 3 time before the competency is locked. Each time the quiz is taken a new series of questions are asked. A relevant recourse then needs to be accessed via the resource library in order to unlock the competency again before further attempts can be made.
Applied knowledge and interpretation in more complex situations is required for diabetes specialist, diabetes expert and diabetes consultant levels. The pass rate has been amended at these levels to 70% to allow for variation of interpretation and practice.
At the end of each quiz, you will be shown your results for each question you answered.
A tick will be shown for each correct answer and a cross will be shown for each incorrect answer.
You will also see a True (T) or False (F) next to each possible answer. The (T) indicates which answer is true or correct for the question posed and the (F) indicates which answer is false or incorrect.
Relevant resources linked to the competency are show at the bottom of the page should you wish to review them.
Yes; if on your third attempt, you are still unable to answer the questions, the competency will be locked and you will be directed to the resources associated with that competency.
Having viewed one or more of the resources, the competency will be unlocked and you may again re-take the quiz.
Our resource library is very extensive and continues to grow daily. We have therefore tried to make it easier for you by grading the resources according to the Aus-CDEP registration level you would have registered yourself against when you created your account.
Aus-CDEP registrations levels are:
Core (minimum level for working with people living with diabetes)
Intermediate (roles that have regular contact with people living with diabetes)
Diabetes specialist (roles that directly support people managing their diabetes)
Diabetes expert (roles that intensively support complex patients with diabetes)
Diabetes consultant (roles that are responsible for managing a specialist caseload as well as leading service design, workforce planning, business case development, etc)
Therefore core resources are great for a brief explanation of the subject or a nice patient resource that you could direct people living with diabetes to. As the levels increase, so does the detail and depth of the resource. This does not mean that a diabetes specialist resource may not be of interest to someone at intermediate level or visa versa. However it does mean that we would expect that level of understanding as a MINIMUM for the corresponding Aus-CDEP registration level.
You can start with any topic, in the order you choose; for example you may have want to start with a subject that you feel more confident with or you may be managing a patient at the moment and feel you would like to learn more about a specific issue to better support them.
You do not have to complete all topics, if you do not wish to in order to obtain Aus-CDEP diabetes competency certification. After each topic is successfully completed, you will be issued with a certificate with the relevant CPD time for that topic which is valid for 2 years.
There are currently 13 topics in total: 8 foundation topics that are relevant to most roles and 5 further topics that are more relevant to some roles than others.
Current topics available are:
Aus-CDEP foundation topics are topics which are relevant to all healthcare practitioner roles no matter which area they work in.
We would highly recommend that all these topics are completed to ensure that a staff member is able to demonstrate robust diabetes competencies in all these fundamental areas of diabetes care.
The first 4 foundation topics to be launched in Australia are:
The rest of the 5 foundation topics are currently under development:
Beyond the 9 Aus-CDEP foundation topics, we also offer more specialist topics that may be more relevant to staff working in different sectors of diabetes care or providing more specialist services.
The first 2 such topic to be launched in Australia are:
The other 4 topics currently under development are:
The short answer is: it varies!
This is because each topic contains a different number of competencies, individuals differ in their knowledge in a particular subject, in their pace of learning, familiarity with their IT device and the CDEP website as well as their reading speed.
We continually monitor the average length of time taken to complete the individual quizzes within each competency and therefore the topic as a whole. Average time taken to complete a topic is then documented as topic-specific diabetes continuous professional development (CPD) time on the relevant certificate. If all 13 currently offered topics are completed a total of 21.5 hours of diabetes CPD time can be claimed.
Our largest topic to date is the QoF Nutrition and Physical Activity topic with 47 competencies to complete. One of the practice nurses, who is one of our tester of the e-learning topics prior to their public launch and therefore is very familiar with the site, was able to successfully complete this topic in 2 hours. A local GP commented 'it was v long that's for sure but thorough no doubt. Certainly took me more than the 2hrs your colleague whizzed thru it! That said it is comprehensive and resources excellent, and I think all GPs and nurses will benefit considerably by ploughing thru it.'
You will be able to generate a certificate from the website once you have successfully completed all the competencies within that topic.
You will also be asked to complete an evaluation of the learning experience relating to that specific topic that Aus-CDEP uses to monitor the overall impact of Aus-CDEP and how best to improve the experience offered.
Average time taken to complete a topic is then documented as topic-specific diabetes continuous professional development (CPD) time on the relevant certificate.
Certificates are valid for 2 years from the date of completion due to the ongoing development of new treatments and continual evolution of diabetes care.
Certificates can be printed and/or emailed when you are logged into the Aus-CDEP website and are stored for future reference under the 'My Learning' tab.
CDEP Australia has successfully gained endorsement from:
We will actively seek endorsement or accreditation from other bodies following the successful completion of the pilot.
You can log onto CDEP from any internet-enabled smartphone, tablet or desktop computer that has access to the internet.
CDEP has a mobile responsive website which offers a fantastic user experience from any device.
For clinical queries:
For administrative queries:
We welcome any feedback or comments on any aspect of this e-learning site as we are keen to continue improving and developing it further.
The detailed data is only viewed by the CDEP development team for the purposes of
All published data will be aggregated and can not be traced back to the individual.
If an organisation has purchased bulk registrations to allow their staff free access at the point of registration, CDEP may provide the organisation with regular reports on their staffing cohort activity, if the organisation desires this information to monitor return on purchase.
The data in the reports includes basic information such as number of staff registered, the individual staff name, practice/trust, whether the staff member has attempted any topics, number of topics attempted and number completed as well as the names of those topics. No further data will be disclosed.
All published reports from Aus-CDEP will only contain anonymised data and aggregated to a level in which specific individuals, organisations and practices cannot be identified.
The data is currently securely stored with a bespoke (i.e. independent) contractor.
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