The other day I wrote a post about who is certified to be a diabetes educator and I received a lot of great feedback from the DOC and also some great comments on the post. I appreciated those that commented with their information about the certification process. Also, good luck to Lauren if she decides to become a CDE. Today I wanted to touch on a different subject related to diabetes education, and that is the lack of it. I had wrote about this a long time ago, maybe two years ago, not sure? The lack of diabetes education is scary. I have attended sessions where a doctor will sit down with 10 patients and go over their charts in front of everybody and try and give education and advice that way. That is way too difficult and is not fair to the individual because their diabetes is not being individually treated, but just the disease as a whole.
Every single person that is newly diagnosed must have access to diabetes education. They may only get a limited amount of time with a certified diabetes educator because there just are not enough in this country. So how are they going to get answers to their questions at 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday night? I know, I know, pick me, pick me.
The DOC
No, not this one…..
This one…. (not the entire DOC just the only pic I have from San Diego Roche Social Summit.
This is why it is so important for the online DOC to become just the DC. I can already see a lot of you beginning to take the “O” of out DOC. I think that the presentation that was just given at AADE is going to be huge. I don’t know how well it went, I haven’t had much of a chance to read up on any posts or any feedback on it, I’m sure it made an impact. If it didn’t at that exact time, then it definitely will begin to.
So how do we make sure that newly diagnosed and those that just don’t really know much about diabetes or want to know more about their diabetes get the education that they need? There are several things that we can do:
- Get to a point whre CDE’s and HCPs are willing to give their patients information about the DOC.
- Online diabetes sessions with CDE’s (would require an hour or so of CDE time to do an online training session with as many people as possible)
- Get additional funding and aide for those that cannot afford to go see a CDE
Those are just a few ideas that pop into my head quickly. I do not have the answers, but I sure don’t mind trying to be part of the solution to the problem however. We have a lot of intelligent people in this community so I am sure among all of us, it can be done. Who wants in and trying to get something done?
Have an awesome Saturday and rest of weekend everybody.
This is great, Chris. Nicely written (and awesome Back to The Future reference in there, too!!). Think it’s a great move to just start with our own CDEs and those in the local areas nearby, to get them aware of the DOC and what that all means and how that can help their patients (and then them, in how these more empowered patients will be). That presentation is a great step, and one we can echo locally offline!