Questions about becoming a CDE

I read your post and it really hit a cord. I received my letter from the examining body informing me I had failed the certification exam. I was not fully prepared, I just could not get any information regarding preview classes. I could not locate any good books to help me prepare adequately. My searches resulted in the same person posting cards and a book which was not very good . The materials contained a ton of grammatical and spelling errors and a lot of repititious materials. In the exam one was required to prescribe and diagnose. Since I was not preparing for the ARNP exam I was not prepared for this. I would like to repeat this exam but In this ecconomy it is really hard forking out another $350. Can someone recommend good preview books and possible an institution where I can adequately prepare to retake the exam. I have a BSN and graduated with a fairly high GPA . Times are really hard ecconomically and the exams are quire expensive. The criteria for eligibility is very stringent so if you suceed in qualifying make sure your have ample preparation. Sorry I used your post to put forward my own questions.

To be able to sit for the CDE exam, eligibility is based on hours of experience, so you actually have to work as a diabetes educator before you are able to sit for the exam, therein lies the challenge for many. As far as preparation to work in diabetes education, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, (www.diabeteseducator.org) offers intraductory courses and material.
Specifically, I would look at their CORE concepts course.

When I prepared for the CDE exam, I used the CORE curriculum published by AADE. It is a 5- volume set and includes sample questions. I started with the material I was LEAST familiar with, to build up skills in my weak areas. That's all I pretty much used and found it to be all I needed. I'm told their CORE concepts course is helpful, although I was never able to attend one.

Thanks, Country Mom! I was having so much trouble finding good advice on this matter. Seems employers only want educators with experience, but surely the current CDEs out there started somewhere.

The Core Curriculum is no longer published, unfortunately.