Overview

Job Summary: The Diabetes Educator identifies patient needs and priorities for education used on assessment for pediatric patient population. Needs to be able to apply in–depth knowledge of diabetes in the care of infant, children, and adolescent patients and their families. Provide education and consultation on the management and/or prevention of diabetes.

Responsible for:

Care Integration - Works as an effective member of a multi-disciplinary pediatric diabetes care team (MDs, nurse practitioners, nurses, dietitians, and social worker), and working with children with diabetes. Provide education to school nurses, school personnel and other care providers. Provides assistance to the patient and family in obtaining necessary prescriptions for supplies and medication.

Patient and Family Education - Provides pre-diabetes and diabetes instruction in group and individual sessions. Obtains individual patient assessment. Identifies patient/family problems or learning barriers including physical, cognitive, environmental, language/cultural, financial, psychosocial and spiritual and provides appropriate referrals as necessary. Establishes individualized learning goals, objectives and educational plan in collaboration with the patient and the patient's caregiver(s). Evaluates patient upon completion of educational plan and provides remediation/plan modification as indicated and in consultation with diabetes team members. Develop educational materials on diabetes self- management based on needs of families or requests by staff in accordance with Clinical Content Committee guidelines, including materials on diabetes self- management, insulin adjustment, use of insulin pumps, and effective educational strategies for families with diabetes on patients from diverse ethnicities for both type I and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Stress the importance of properly managing diabetes to lower the risk of complications and reduce the chances of hospitalization.

Clinical Practice - Provides diabetes self-management education and family support for patients with diabetes in the outpatient setting. Provide both individualized and group family education. Work with patients diagnosed with diabetes and their families, to facilitate improving self-management age specific goals for all patients. Work with specialized endocrine populations to facilitate improving self-­management age specific goals for all patients. Provides education that reflects the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education. Determines appropriate educational plan for family and patient based on learning assessment with consideration for growth and development, psychosocial, and emotional factors. Demonstrates expert knowledge of diabetes by providing current, fact-based information

Qualifications

Education required: Graduate from an accredited college or university

Education preferred: Bachelor’s degree in a related field from an accredited college or university

License, registration and/or certification: Require dietetic registration and licensure or nursing licensure within provisional period. Must be a Certified Diabetes Educator or working toward certification in diabetes education within provisional period.

Experience: 2 years experience in the field of diabetes care and education is preferred

Additional skills/abilities: Effective verbal and written skills. Ability to communicate with people from diverse socioeconomic background