How do you collect CDE hours?

mbdRN · Jan 10, 2014

I would encourage you to read over the eligibility requirements at the NCBDE's website: http://www.ncbde.org/certification_info/eligibility-requirements/

To qualify to test for CDE, you must have 2 years of working experience in your discipline (for you, that's as a registered nurse), 1000 DSME hours (as of 2014, these can be volunteer--I'm assuming that only volunteer hours starting in 2014 count but I'm not sure), and 15 hours of diabetes related CEUs.

The documentation is only requested if you get audited. DSME is defined as:

"For purposes of certification eligibility, some or all of the following components of the DSME process may be performed and counted towards meeting the DSME practice experience requirement:

An individual assessment and education plan developed collaboratively by the individual and educator(s) to direct the selection of appropriate educational interventions and self-management support strategies.
Educational interventions directed toward helping the individual achieve self-management goals.
Periodic evaluations to determine attainment of educational objectives or need for additional interventions and future reassessments.
A personalized follow-up plan developed collaboratively by the individual and educator(s) for ongoing self-management support.
Documentation in the education record of the assessment and education plan and the intervention and outcomes.

In addition, program development and administration provided in support of the diabetes patient education program are considered part of the DSME process."

So your private nursing experiences with that young boy certainly count toward the 1000 hours. No one has to observe you or sign off on anything. You do not need a BSN to sit for the exam. Read over the NCBDE and AADE websites. That should answer most of your questions. Good luck!

Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN · Apr 20, 2014

After reviewing the cert requirements, agree completely with ya, MBD.

Good luck, Type!

Mudwoman · Sep 25, 2014

It used to be that 400 of the required 1000 hours could be volunteer hours. The big thing is to keep track of what you are doing as far as teaching. If you are teaching a patient while working, keep a record somewhere and the amount of time you spent. Watch for the requirement for the assessment, education plan, intervention and outcomes. You may need to call the patient on your own time later to see how the patient is doing and document that. Be sure you don't violate HIPPA. Do not have patient info that is not private. So, whatever you use for documenting your education, must be locked up. Have you thought of doing community classes and charging a small fee? I know a CDE that got a lot of her hours by doing just that. She charged $10 per person. New requirements may let you get all of the 1000 hours volunteering (not sure, check on this). Consider doing some diabetes education for church groups or a local club etc. If you do that, have people do a sign in sheet to verify attendance. You can count the amount of time spent.....let's say 1 hour times the number of people. So, if 10 people show up for 1 hour that equals 10 hours of teaching. You must be at least a RN. You do not have to have a BSN. Join AADE. You do not have to be a CDE to do that.

I was lucky to find a job working at a hospital as a diabetes educator. I was working on my BSN, but the thing that got me the job was that I was a member of AADE. It just showed to the person hiring that I was really serious about a career in diabetes education. After a year of working as a diabetes educator, I got my CDE.

Go for your dream.

NurStud10 · Feb 2, 2015

Hi BrooklynRN,

I am in a similar situation as you. I have been a diabetic for 15 years in March. I have been a nurse for 7 months on a Med-Surg unit. I know floor nursing and especially not med-surg is for me. I have an extreme interest in becoming a CDE. I have talked to my own CDE and she thinks it will be a great suit for me. From what I got from her, I only need 1000 hours of diabetic teaching and to take the CDE exam. I looked on the NCBDE website and that is about all I could find as well.

I was curious if you have gone forward with becoming a CDE? What did you do to get there? I am working toward my BSN right now, so I will probably begin working on getting certified after that, but I want to know what to expect. Thank you in advance!

Hannah RN

SteveDE · Feb 3, 2015

You do have to have some kind of a log or proof showing at least 1000 hours of diabetes education work. What I used was my payroll hours, when I was clocked in as a diabetes educator, its an "official" list of hours that I can prove that I was working as a diabetes educator in some capacity. Also you have to have at least 2 years of experience in your current professional role, such as a minimum of 2 years as a RD, RN, or etc. You then must apply for, pay for, and pass the CDE test.

I understand you have had diabetes for 15 years, but similar to the nclex for nursing, the cde test will attempt to give you as many "gray" areas to confuse you in answering, so I would recommend making sure you get plenty of experience with diabetes education for others, possibly taking a course like Core Concepts through AADE, and networking with other diabetes educators to continue to learn the overall process of education, management of an education program, and anything else diabetes related prior to taking the test. Good luck! Its a great field.

SteveDE · Feb 3, 2015

Also, you do not have to be a CDE to provide diabetes education. The CDE certification does not change your license scope of practice.

Mudwoman · Feb 7, 2015

The exam for CDE covers many areas. It is important to know about diabetes, but do you know how to motivate all types of people to make lifestyle changes. Do you know the requirements if you were head of a ADA or AADA certified diabetes education program. Do you know the proper way to dose insulin and medications? Are you comfortable with the 7 areas of diabetes self care management? Do you know how to implement the Chronic Care Model for Improvements in Diabetes Practice or understand the Health Care Continuum so that you can apply that to behavioral change? Can you apply Social Cognitive Theory? You must know ALL of your recommended lab results by heart for adults, elderly and children of all ages. There is a lot of questions on the test regarding Health Literacy. How do you teach someone that can't read or comprehend well? How do you teach and still be sensitive to someone's culture or spiritual beliefs? How do you apply the Transtheoretical Model to your teaching? Do you understand the 1500, 1700 rules for establishing correction factors for bolus insulin? What about the Self-determination theory and how that effects your teaching? What about trouble shooting blood glucose issues?

The main reason I'm pointing all this out is that there is a lot to know in order to pass the CDE exam. It is not just a matter of knowing about diabetes. If you are studying the areas of expected knowledge while you are doing the required hours for the test, then the test should be relatively easy for you. The expectation of the National Board of Certified Diabetes Educators is that your teaching embraces all of the areas of knowledge found on the test.

Remember you are an educator. Your specialty is diabetes. But as an educator, you have to have a broad knowledge base in other areas. Does no good to teach a variety of people, if you can only teach a certain type. Does no good to become a CDE if you then don't know the first thing about running a certified ADA or AADE diabetes education program that you might be hired for.

Just food for thought

Cobaxters · Feb 28, 2018

Do DPP hours count towards the DSME hours needed to take the CDE exam?

Mudwoman · Apr 2, 2018

It is my understanding that actual time educating patients on diabetes counts as well as hours obtained under a Mentor (from the list provided by NCBDE) counts towards the hours needed. You do need to document the hours. You can always contact the NCBCE to see if your DPP hours would count and if so, how much.