Diabetes Educator: The Role and Experience in a Tertiary Government Hospital – A Technical Note

Abstract

Diabetes educator (DE) has a clear and important role in the overall management of patients with diabetes in
all stages of care by providing much needed detailed information and support on adequate understanding of
the pathology and safe-execution of the prescription by the specialist and other life-style changes to combat
diabetes effectively. This is more significant in countries like India where there is an unfavourable ratio of
physicians to patients with diabetes. The accessibility of the health-care team by the huge number of patients
with diabetes in the government hospitals and consequent rush hours can be effectively compensated by
the DE by relieving the physician of routine and repeated individual counselling contributing to effective
physician utilization and avoiding fatigue and burnout. Literature has evidence that this cost-effective
intervention can improve patient outcome and warrants more investment in formal training and continuous
academic development of DEs. In this manuscript, a step-by-step counselling of patients with diabetes is
described for easy understanding and execution.