Diabetes educators are healthcare professionals who focus on helping people with and at risk for diabetes achieve behavior change goals in an effort to improved overall health status. Diabetes educators apply in-depth knowledge and skills to provide self-management education.
Diabetes Educators:
- Provide services in many settings, such as hospitals, physician offices, outpatient settings, pharmacies, local community and other settings
- Focus on key behaviors that promote successful self-management of diabetes
- Assist in the coordination of the health-care team to evaluate the patient’s diabetes and help develop of the plan of care
- Give people with diabetes the knowledge, skills and tools they need to successfully manage their diabetes and avoid many of the complications associated with the disease
Diabetes education, also known as diabetes self-management training (DSMT) or diabetes self-management education (DSME), is defined as a collaborative process through which people with or at risk for diabetes gain the knowledge and skills needed to modify behavior and successfully self-manage the disease and its related conditions.
Diabetes education focuses on self-care behaviors that are essential for improved health status and greater quality of life, such as:
- Healthy eating
- Problem solving
- Healthy coping
- Being physically active
- Reducing risks and complications
- Taking and understanding your medications
- Monitoring your blood glucose and other tests
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