Policy Analysis: Diabetes Nursing - Essay Example

Using the same policy, this paper will analyze the related issue in the case study about a patient representing a diagnosis (in this case diabetes). Educators of persons with diabetes act as a lifeline to the patients, and provide crucial insights into self-care behavior that keeps diabetes under control (Huskamp et al, 2001). The educators are represented at the state and federal government level by the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE). However, due to the challenges pointed out in Reb’s analysis, their effectiveness is not felt in the required measures.

The key challenge is the shortage of educators, which is further compounded by the fact that not all the available ones are adequately educated. With the increasing number of diabetics, this means that the few available certified diabetes educators (CDEs) are overworked and do not deliver the expected results. State laws may be implemented to improve the care and education of patients, but the capacity of healthcare professionals must also be improved in tandem with the laws (Mooney, 2000). For example, in 2006, a law was passed in Massachusetts that extended health insurance to cover most of its residents.

However, the available primary care providers could not cater for the increased number of covered patients, and visits to the emergency department shot up. Secondly, the recruiting process for new educators has slowed down to almost a standstill because of the certification process, which poses another barrier (AANP & ELCEP, 2001). The procedure to become a CDE was put together over two decades ago with the purpose of certifying a group of professionals who were educating patients. The pioneer educators demanded and were officially certified for their work.

However, that initial setup later became the barrier to healthcare professionals who wanted to become CDEs. No proper college curriculum was available for one to become an educator in diabetes (Leight, 2002). Rather, everyone came into it in a different way. For instance, others simply got in by way of assignment to work in diabetes education programs but not for the purpose of being awarded degrees. Further, for one to be certified, prior licensing as a healthcare professional is mandatory. Although there is a clinically-oriented four hour exam that includes scenarios for patient problem-solving, there still remains a dilemma of acquiring field experience that goes beyond formal class-work.

The situation is worsened by the requirement that the hours worked in gaining experience have to be within a paid position in a professional diabetes education. This means that to become a CDE, an individual must first work as one (Milder & Crowell, 2002). They become more disadvantaged because most institutions will not hire them without certification. In this analysis, the stakeholders will be made up of the nursing organizations, the educators, patients and insurance firms. To address the problem of insufficient education to CDEs, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) merged to form the Board Certified-Advanced Diabetes Management (BC-ADM) which awards CDEs with academic degrees. They