Health wellness coach vs Diabetes educator

[Natasha A., CNA, LVN]

My question is what is the difference between a health and wellness coach which requires no nursing background and degree and a diabetes educator with a nursing background and degree? They both target the same patient population and can own a business.

[Duncan6]

I'm a Certified Diabetes Educator. In order to be certified as such, you have to have 2000 hours working with patients with diabetes, continuing education- I think it was 30 hours- and you have to sit for a national certification exam. While CDEs do work a lot with diet/exercise/lifestyle change, we also educate on diabetes meds, teach self-care behaviors for pts ie: what to do when you're sick, how to adjust insulin for exercise, etc. We also educate on various therapies that are available such as insulin pumps vs insulin injections. Some of us train pts on how to use insulin pumps and other equipment like cgms. And depending on where you work, there may be a lot of time spent dealing with case management issues and insurance companies/third party suppliers. That's the very basic gist of it. If I am correct health/wellness coaches are not necessarily certified or even licensed as a health care provider. They would be able to give "generic" healthy living advice- certainly no education on medications or things of that nature.

[Natasha A., CNA, LVN]

Thank you Duncan6 for sharing your detailed experience on how you got started. And yes, you are correct. Health coaches are not allowed to give medical advice. There is a significant rise in chronic disease rates.