Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES)

What is a certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES)?

A certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES) is a healthcare provider with extensive knowledge in diabetes management, prediabetes and diabetes prevention.

“CDCES” is a credential qualifying healthcare providers can obtain with special training and certification. The credential used to be called “certified diabetes educator (CDE).” Several types of providers can become certified as a CDCES. Some examples include:

• Registered nurses (RNs).
• Nurse practitioners (NPs).
• Registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs).
• Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs).
• Physician assistants (PAs).
• Doctors of pharmacy (PharmDs).
• Doctors of medicine (MDs).

The main goal of a CDCES is to encourage and support you in self-managing diabetes. They’ll guide you in setting individualized and realistic behavioral and management goals that’ll help to reduce the risk of diabetes complications and improve overall health.

What does a CDCES do?

A CDCES partners with people with diabetes to educate, support and help them achieve their management goals. This includes people with:

• Type 1 diabetes.
• Type 2 diabetes.
• LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes of adults).
• Gestational diabetes.
• Other specific types of diabetes, like Type 3c diabetes and MODY (maturity-onset diabetes of the young).

They may also work with people with prediabetes to try to prevent it from developing into Type 2 diabetes. A CDCES may work with you one-on-one or in a group setting.

As the title suggests, CDCESs are experts on diabetes care and education. They can teach you about:

• The causes and symptoms of diabetes.
• Strategies to help prevent prediabetes, Type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.
• How to treat high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
• Diabetes complications and signs to look for.
• How food and physical activity impact blood sugar levels.
• How to check your blood sugar and strategies for blood sugar monitoring.
• Different diabetes treatments, like oral diabetes medications and injectable medications (like GLP-1 agonists).
• How to use insulin, including correct administration and how long it lasts in your system.
• Diabetes tests, like an A1C, and the information they provide about management.
• Current diabetes management technology, like continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and insulin pumps.

They can also relay issues and concerns to other providers who help manage your care, like:

• Issues with your treatment plan.
• Barriers to adequate diabetes management you may have, like lack of support or lack of access to diabetes supplies.

Where does a CDCES work?

A CDCES may work in a variety of settings, including:

• Hospitals.
• Private physician practices.
• Public health.
• Home health.
• Wellness programs.
• Community clinics.

They work closely with other healthcare providers, like primary care physicians (PCPs) and endocrinologists, to provide the best care for people with diabetes.

When would I see a CDCES?

Whether you’ve recently received a diabetes diagnosis or have had it for years, a CDCES meets you where you are in your diabetes management journey. So, you could see a CDCES at any point.

Diabetes is a very complex condition that affects many areas of your life. Reaching and maintaining your management goals involves knowledge and experience across several topics, like:

• How macronutrients in food (carbohydrates, protein and fat) — and different combinations of them — affect your blood sugar levels.
• How different types of physical activity affect your blood sugar levels.
• How different diabetes medications work.
• Monitoring your health for diabetes-related complications.
• Problem-solving diabetes management roadblocks.
• How diabetes may affect other health conditions you have — and vice versa.
• Advances in diabetes management technology.
• Integrating diabetes management into your daily life.

It’s difficult to learn and accommodate all these aspects on your own — this is where a CDCES can help. As your life changes, your diabetes management will likely need to change, as well. Meeting with a CDCES at diagnosis and throughout your life can help set you up for success.

How do I become a CDCES?

There’s no single path to becoming a CDCES. Some healthcare providers seek their profession to become a CDCES, while others may seek the certification after years of being a provider.

The Certification Board for Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (CBDCES) administers and maintains the CDCES credential. It also determines eligibility requirements.

To apply to take the CDCES exam to earn certification, you must:

• Currently hold a healthcare professional license. For example, you may be a registered nurse, registered dietitian nutritionist or a physician assistant. Check the CBDCES’s website for all the qualifying health professional licenses.
• Have two years of professional general practice experience — either work or volunteer.
• Have 1,000 hours of diabetes education within a maximum of four years.
• Have 15 hours of diabetes-related continuing education (CE) within the past two years.

If you pass the CDCES exam, you’ll officially have the CDCES credential. Maintaining the CDCES certification requires renewal every five years.

Can you be a diabetes educator without being a nurse?

The CBDCES offers a Unique Qualifications Pathway (UQP) to become a CDCES. This is an uncommon — but possible — route to becoming a CDCES. If you don’t have one of the qualifying healthcare professional licenses (like being a registered nurse), you may be able to use the UQP.

This pathway is for health professionals who have a minimum of a master’s degree in a health-related area (like clinical social work, for example) from a United States college or university. The CBDCES has to pre-approve your application for eligibility to become a CDCES under this pathway.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Managing diabetes can be daunting. There’s a lot to learn and understand. And as your life changes, so will your management plan. Know that a certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES) can help you learn the ins and outs of diabetes and empower you to self-manage it with success. Reach out to your healthcare provider about meeting with a CDCES. They’re available to help.