Future Diabetes educator

This would be a good place to start:

http://www.ncbde.org/

It's the website for the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators. While the entire website would be great to look over, the most important parts are here: http://www.ncbde.org/certification_info/eligibility-requirements/

Now if you don't wish to be certified, you can still be a diabetes educator, but finding a job without a CDE will likely be more difficult. It's still possible as that's what happened for me; I'm always learning and have very supportive co-workers.

Best of luck!

I want to ask everyone for an advice. I might lose my job really soon and I don't think I can ever go back to bedside nursing anymore because of my condition (I had a work related injury that involves the spine). I feel that I need to go back to school and I found out that my passion is diabetes education. There's only one university that has a program for MSN on Diabetes Education. I don't know if you've heard of Capella University. It's a 2 year program and it costs 21,000. My dilemma is, I am wondering if there's a lot of job opportunities for diabetes educators? Some people tell me that it's hard to find a job in this area of nursing and so, I may end up just wasting my money. Somebody advised me that I should take an MSN on a more general area of nursing. I am torn between what I want and what is needed.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I recommend contacting Education depts in local hospitals, or calling the Endo doctor's offfices to find out who does their out patient education. One of the groups in my area is made up of RN's and Dieticians (registered and licensed). That way people come to you.

Most certifications require you to practice at least two years before being qualified to take the certification exam. Be sure you read what the reqs are. GOOD LUCK