diabetic nurse educator

[telefloornurse]

hi everyone,

it's been a while since i visited.

I want to be a diabetic nurse educator. where do i start? do i need to be certified first? and i went to the website and they said that i have to have some experience. Being in the DOU floor i have some experience in educating patients on diabetic care.

i searched this whole site but didn't see any info on this. so would appreciate if anyone can point me to the right direction

[tgb1966]

Hi Telefloornurse--

I started by going to a program called "From Basics Forward" which is a basic diabetes educator course. It is sponsored by the American Association of Diabetes Educators. The website is AADEnet.org. This is a great group to begin networking with. There are several local groups that have grown out of the national organization.

Certification requires two years of full-time formal diabetes education experience and this must be signed off by a supervisor and sent in with your application to sit for the CDE exam. The exam is tough, and you should know both peds and adult diabetes information.

Many times you can work as a diabetes educator without certification while getting the experience that you need for the exam. I hope that this helps...Good luck!

Tamara