World Diabetes Day – Time to celebrate Adelaide’s link to 1922 insulin discovery
It’s World Diabetes Day and full marks to Google for acknowledging the day with the image above for all to see when using their platform today! It would have been the 125th birthday of Frederick Banting who, with colleagues J.J.R. MacLeod and Charles Best at the Canadian University of Toronto, identified a way to extract…
Training support workers to administer Insulin – Illegal or discrimination not to?
In 2016 I fulfilled a commitment that began three years before when a disability support organisation in Albury, NSW contacted me. They wanted to know … is it legal for support workers to be trained to give insulin to a person with intellectual disability and could I provide the training? My response was yes ……
Credentialled Diabetes Educators – The Primary Care Elephant in the Room
CDEs receive one referral per 1000 GP consults despite GPs dedicating 4.2 appointments per 100 to diabetes care. Jayne Lehmann RN CDE explores if CDEs are the elephant in the room when it comes to achieving improved long term glycaemic targets in people with type 2 diabetes. Some 20-25 years ago responsibility for type 2…
Twitter – A DE tool for good not evil!
I need to declare from the outset – like many of my colleagues in the BTE (that’s Before Twitter Experience!) period I did not see a place for technological platforms in my diabetes education. Now ATE (After Twitter Experience!) there’s no stopping me! Previous blogs have looked at my introduction to Twitter at the ADS/ADEA…
Diabetes Educators: Don’t Run the Other Way … You need Social Media!
Jayne Lehmann RN CDE Over the last few weeks, I’ve been both informed and amazed by my social media journey. After tweeting my way through the ADS/ADEA Annual Scientific Meeting and doing a post conference blog on ‘Social Media – Another tool in the Diabetes Educators’ tool kit!’ I’ve managed to keep the momentum going. There’s…
Can Diabetes Educators use Twitter to Support Experienced Type 1s?
Jayne Lehmann RN CDE Part 2: Twitter – A tool for good not evil! In the second part of this blog on Twitter and its use by diabetes educators, the role it can play in supporting people who have had type 1 diabetes for a long time and are confidently self managing, or the veteran T1s, is explored. Twitter enables people to share…
New Year’s Resolutions – A taste of life with diabetes
Did you make a new year’s resolution? Many people start the new year off with one or more resolutions. Mostly their resolutions focus on things like planning to lose weight, get more exercise, stop smoking or drinking too much alcohol, decrease stress or increase time with family and friends. (Interesting that they all focus on positively influencing…
Diabetes Awareness Week 2016 – Same old, same old!
Yet again a negative and frightening national awareness campaign has been launched into the media and social media channels across Australia by Diabetes Australia (DA). This will be my thirty-first Diabetes Awareness Week and unfortunately will yet again increase diabetes distress in many people with diabetes as well as those yet to be diagnosed. There…
Social Media – Another tool in the Diabetes Educators’ tool kit!
Jayne Lehmann RN CDE Much of my time as a diabetes educator is spent supporting people in their quest for knowledge, skills and empowerment around their diabetes and its care. Until a year or so ago I hadn’t even considered social media as a skill I needed in my toolkit of education and consulting skills. That all changed after attending…
Type 2 diabetes BGM Strip Restrictions – CDE Survival Guide (Part 1)
Jayne Lehmann RN CDE Blood glucose monitoring strip restrictions are about to impact on the 789,985 Australians who are not prescribed insulin to manage their type 2 diabetes. Credentialled Diabetes Educator Jayne Lehmann looks at the implications for Credentialled Diabetes Educators (CDEs) and other health professionals in this two-part blog. Look out for the practical…