What Do Diabetes Educators Teach?
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The role of the diabetes educator is to provide training and support in self-management, guiding the person with diabetes to understand and accept that diabetes is not managed in the brief time spent in the clinician’s office; rather, it must be managed daily by the patient.
The AADE adopted specific lifestyle and behavior changes as the outcome measures of DSMT:
- Being active
- Healthy eating
- Taking medication
- Monitoring of blood glucose
- Problem solving
- Reducing risks
- Healthy coping
Known as the AADE 7 core measures of outcome performance, these are based on published evidence that support the application in practice of these measures. Historically, it was left to each diabetes educator to determine what and what not to assess. The focus of diabetes education now is on the assessment of these 7 health care behaviors. The person with diabetes needs to be ready and willing to make the decision to be involved in the disease process.
