Becoming a Certified Diabetic Educator

[zacarias]

Hey all,

I'm having a difficult time finding this information. I'm a RN 1.5 years out of school with med/surg and tele/stepdown experience. I've always enjoyed the pathophysiology of diabetes and dealing with treatments etc. I would love to get into diabetic education but am not sure on the route.

I know that to be certified, you have to have 1,000 hours of diabetes self-management teaching experience and take the exam. My question is: How in the world do you get those 1,000 hours? I mean it sounds like they expect you to get a job doing diabetic education, and then officially certify later.

Are these jobs to gain experience in abundance? How do you get into it? It seems like a catch-22 (experience needed to get job, certification needed to get job, but certification unavailable unless you have the job). Thanks.

[jjjoy, LPN]

Let me just vent -

yet another one of those "so many different opportunities in nursing" options that aren't really something you can plan for because the opportunities are few and far between

Okay, vent done!

[classiccat]

How badly do you want to be a diabetic educator/CDE? REad and reflect if you may. Luck combined with creativity and strong will to become who you want to be : It worked well for me. I sat down with my DON and told her that I had a proposal that since we have lots of diabetic patients in the hospital (rehabilitation) and we don't have a diabetic educator position , I decided to be it : staff nurse for 3days/week and diabetic educator 2 days/week, providing 1:1 patient education and diabetic class. Having dual role/position. that took care of the 1K hour requirement to sit for the examination. The hospital loved it because of positive feedback from patients and families. Ironically,when I finally had CDE after my name that's when they phased out the diabetic educator role and left the diabetic educ.responsibility to the staff nurses who by the way are doing a great job in providing the 1:1 educ to patients and families- and still get the positive feedback from the patients,families and even MDs. I finally had a job somewhere else as a CDE , and made couple of cents more per hour than what I used to make as a staff nurse. My patients love me , and yet when they looked at my ID they ask "What does CDE stands for?"...HUH?. We worked so hard to put those letters and abbreviations after our names - titles that we value , and certifying boards' intentions to declare exclusivity - to our patients and community we serve, it is meaningless!!!It's our actions and expression of compassion that leave a strong mark that they remember and value - not those 3-4 letters after our names. Idealistic it may seem however, it's these TITLES and 3 letters that pays the bill and feed our egos!!! Welcome to the world of illusions!!