I hope everyone is doing great and managing their blood sugars well. I am always informing patients with everything I can to make their diabetes journey smooth. This I feel gives them knowledge and as rightfully said by Nelson Mandela, knowledge is power!
Having the correct know how allows you to make the proper decisions and in a diabetic patients’ life, this greatly affects their everyday living. Simple things like how to balance out meals, what type of shoes to wear, how to cut your nails, might seem basic but are crucial for patients with diabetes.
This brings me to our topic today, diabetes education. It is extremely important for any holistic diabetes centre to have a diabetes educator on board. Unfortunately, we don’t have so many in Kenya, but we are working towards that goal.
A diabetes educator does not have to be a doctor or a nurse, rather a nutritionist or nurse aid can be one. A diabetes educator is trained in providing a teaching-learning session with patients who are usually evaluated on the knowledge received. They discuss all issues relating to diabetes such as;
-causes/risk factors
-how to inject insulin
-monitoring trends
-general nutrition & foot care
-offer emotional support and give patients morale
Roles of diabetes educators have been noted to be extremely important in diabetes care. The benefits are tremendous such as;
-patients have improved self-care due to a better understanding of their condition
-less hospital visits
-Less telephone calls
-Less visits to the ER
-overall a more positive and happy patient.
Kind Regards,
Dr. Salwa Shahbal
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