Memorial Children’s Hospital has a coordinated, family centered, pediatric diabetes team consisting of pediatric intensivists, a pediatrician with a sub specialty in diabetes, a certified diabetes educator (CDE), pediatric nurse educators, a pediatric dietitian, social workers, and child life specialists.

New onset diabetes education begins with family caregivers on admission and continues daily. Essential survival skills needed before discharge are provided. The child and caregivers are given individualized, one on one instruction in class time and then also at the bedside as they participate in the care of their child with this new diagnosis.

Those inpatients in our Pediatric Units with diabetes are all assessed for education and social service needs. Topics available are DKA prevention, hyperglycemia protocol, trouble shooting an insulin pump, sick day management, and special considerations for surgery, injury or other disruptions in their diabetes management.

Outpatient education is provided at the Health Discovery Center on the campus of Memorial Hospital with individual appointments made with the pediatric certified diabetes educator. Diabetes self management education (DSME) reviews the basic skills plus sick day management, school day management, healthy living with diabetes, monitoring, carbohydrate counting, new insulin regimes, problem solving, and effective coping skills. Introduction to insulin pump therapy is offered for basic concepts and demonstrations of the insulin pumps. Insulin pump training is provided on four of the major insulin pump systems- Medtronics Minimed,Cozmore System, Animas, and OmniPod.

For more information: nmackiewicz@memorialsb.org or 574.647.3154