CDE
Would/can anyone give me personal experience and info regarding the profession? Do we have any recent graduates of the program in our tudiabetes network?
Looking into entering the profession? I’m curious as to answers also.
Believe it or not, yes. For the past four to five years I have been a guest speaker for the local community college’s nursing classes. I explain to the nursing students about “life as a diabetic.”
For the remainder of my life I must do something to serve … and assist others who are not as driven as I may have been with the disease. Looked into the academic program & the salary - but never actually have I visited with a person with the title.
I know several CDE’s, but I think you need to be an RN to become a CDE, but I could be quite mistaken.
or you can be a CDE Pharmacist, or a CDE Dietitian …at least in Canada you can …one is certified to teach PWD
http://www.cdecb.ca/index.php?id=eligibility
No personal experience , but have friends and associates who are.
Judith , you made me laugh ( I think it even will be bearable now to do the 12 hour fasting lab test as I continue to keep on laughing ) …Auntie to some , Grannie to others 
CDEs in the US are certified by the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators (http://www.ncbde.org/). In order to qualify, you have to be a health professional “in some form” (see http://www.ncbde.org/eligibility.cfm#Eligibility). You can be a nurse, doctor, optomotrist or you can hold a masters degree or higher in a health area like nutrition or even health administration. If you are licensed in a health occupation, that also qualifies you. After you qualify, you then need 2 years of experience and then you can apply to become certified.
There are a number of CDEs here and I know a number. If you are interested in the CDE community, you might visit the site http://presentdiabetes.com/index.php which is a community supporting CDEs and other diabetic health professionals. The site has discussion forums as well as continuing education which counts towards the CDE. The CE/CME is free and can be useful in your education. Extra points if you can find any tudiabetes members there.
If you qualify as a professional, contact diabetes@diabetesedu.org; Diabetes Education Society, 535 Detroit St., Denver, CO 80206. phone 800/659-5808. FAX 303 320-1550 for education. You can get CEUs, participate in Webinars online. To be certified, you must work in an approved setting with another CDE, hopefully, and you must test, same as any advanced professional group.
The website is down today, but email is available.
I believe the reason folks see such variability in their CDEs is the background experience of the CDE. You don’t really have a choice in an office. The very best applicant would be a professional with diabetes. But even that is fraught with variability because every diabetic is different. As we see on here, we each, as diabetics, come with our own personal experience.
I highly recommend professional nurses and pharmacists who are diabetics to get the education given by the society. Whether or not they want to take the internship and test. They will be better educated.
Long ago conversation & now a current thank you. I’m visiting the links as I type. Thank you bsc.