URVH trio provide education

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By Shawn Merrithew

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When it comes to diabetes, they are considered a jack-of-all-trades.

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Three women are helping people cope and manage their lives when it comes to diabetes. Recently, from left, RN Susan Lockhart, RD Michelle Corcoran and RN Andrea Woodward became certified diabetes educators (DE). The trio work in the diabetes education centre at the Upper River Valley Hospital, working with all people of all ages and levels of the disease.

Earlier this month, three women at the Upper River Valley Hospital settled into their new roles as certified diabetes educators – registered nurse (RN) Andrea Woodward, registered nurse (RN) Susan Lockhart and registered dietitian (RD) Michelle Corcoran. Woodward said she and her fellow diabetes educators have extensive role at the hospital.

The trio works as a team in the hospital's diabetes education centre, she said, giving classes on pre-diabetes, newly diagnosed diabetes, seasoned diabetes and healthy eating. In addition, they host a diabetes support clinic every two weeks on Wednesdays. She calls it a walk-in group, which provides an education session for the people who attend and check their blood sugar levels, weight and blood pressure.

"It is for anybody who wants to come," Woodward added. "and it is an on-going clinic."

Besides that, she said, they each see individual patients to help with everything from initiation of insulin, reviewing a patient's health and even troubleshooting with diabetes.

"Maybe their metre might not be working, so we help with that," said Woodward.

But most important, she said, as a diabetes educator, she helps people stay motivated and maintain a healthy diet when coping with diabetes.

" is a progressive disease, and it is long term," she explained. "It is not like a cut on your arm that you see and it heals. you don't see. You do see how it affects an individual, so that can be hard to cope with. People often have a hard time managing, so we are there to help them in whatever they need and help with the long-term management of diabetes."

Like Woodward, Corcoran sees her new role as an important position to helping people of any age and any level of the disease – from newly diagnosed to someone who has had it for 20 years – cope with the disease. Her main focus is geared towards helping out with eating, meal planning and blood-sugar management.

" affects so many aspects of people's lives," Corcoran said. "If a person has heart disease, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, all of those things are intertwined with diabetes. So I help people manage their life and try to make it as healthy as possible while coping with the disease."

She added she looks forward to her role and trying "to make as much of an impact as she can."

Woodward also enjoys and looks forward to her new role. Becoming a certified diabetes educator held a personal interest for her. The disease has touched her family, she said, affecting her grandmother, who was diagnosed at 18. After watching her grandmother cope with being a diabetic, she said, it peaked her interest to educate people and promote more awareness of the disease and the impact it can have on one's life.

"Plus I like on-going challenges, and diabetes care is a challenge for the educators because it involves the whole system in the body," Woodward added. "It involves kidney function, eyesight, heart even pain in the legs. All of the things are affected."

For Corcoran, it was just a interest in the disease that prompted her to become an educator.

"I've been working with people with diabetes for about 10 years," she explained, pointing it out it hasn't been easy. "Certainly everyday has its challenges in terms of how much a patient is able to do compared to how much we would like them to do. But it is not always about what we want them to do, it is about what they're able to do."

For more information on diabetes or the role of a certified diabetes educator, people can contact Woodward, Corcoran or Lockhart at 375-2573.