With diabetes continuing to ravage CNMI residents, there is a need for more health care professionals whose efforts are focused toward managing the condition of patients afflicted with this disease. Hardt Eye Clinic takes pride in having its head nurse as a vital addition to this pool of diabetes educators.<\/p>\n
Helen He is now a Certified Diabetes Educator after passing on her first take the examination of the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators in June.<\/p>\n
Certified Diabetes Educators or CDEs are highly educated health professionals\u2014most commonly registered nurses, physicians, pharmacists or dietitians\u2014with special training and experience in diabetes. <\/p>\n
Once they meet qualifications, these health professionals are allowed to take the examination to become certified by the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators.<\/p>\n
He, who graduated with a nursing degree from the Northern Marianas College in 2007 and was the school\u2019s valedictorian, believes that prevention is \u201calways\u201d better than treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen so many patients suffer from vision loss and other complications even with the best treatment available,\u201d said He. \u201cThe right changes from early stages can prevent the need for surgery or laser treatment, as well as other problems like heart and kidney disease.\u201d<\/p>\n
He joins Hardt Eye Clinic\u2019s Dr. Don Hardt as the CNMI\u2019s only CDEs, enhancing the private clinic\u2019s ongoing efforts to \u201cget out in front\u201d of diabetes.<\/p>\n
Hardt, who passed the CDE exam in December 2010, said that He spent a lot of her time concentrating on diabetes education in the last few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so proud of Helen for this major accomplishment, but we are even more proud of the help she has been providing to our diabetic patients,\u201d said Hardt. \u201cWe have seen many patients turn their lives around after working with Helen.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hardt recounted how he used to send his patients to the Commonwealth Health Center for diabetes education.<\/p>\n
When the dietitian left and diabetes education was no longer available, Hardt decided to launch their own program for diabetes patients, many of whom suffer from complications such as blindness, foot amputations, heart disease, strokes, and kidney failure\u2014all of which can be avoided.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the combination of good medication and better lifestyle choices, most people with diabetes can live a long, healthy life without major complications. We work together with the primary care doctor to enhance the overall care,\u201d said Hardt.<\/p>\n
According to He, a common misconception about diabetes education is that it\u2019s similar to listening to a lecture.<\/p>\n
But diabetes education, He said, is \u201cbased on the need and interests of each patient\u201d to enable them to find their \u201cnormal routine\u201d with diabetes management.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Hardt Eye Clinic we follow the standards set forth by the American Diabetes Association. We want to help the patient and support them in making better lifestyle choices. We want to help solve problems and communicate with their entire healthcare team so that everyone is on board with the patient\u2019s road to success,\u201d said He.<\/p>\n
Hardt Eye Clinic also provides free transportation for patients who want to know more about diabetes education, which is open to anyone even if they receive eye care elsewhere.<\/p>\n
For more information about the program, call 235-2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With diabetes continuing to ravage CNMI residents, there is a need for more health care professionals whose efforts are focused toward managing the condition of patients afflicted with this disease. Hardt Eye Clinic takes pride in having its head nurse as a vital addition to this pool of diabetes educators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}