Abstract
The National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) have been recently revised and updated. As a critical element of care, the national standards provide oversight and general guidelines as a foundation of how diabetes educators should practice. With the landscape of health care continually changing and the many advancements in technology, standards for DSMES change based on the most recent scientific evidence available. As diabetes educators, our role is to ensure that patients with diabetes have the most up-to-date information to adapt to changes. Standards for DSMES inform our thinking and decision making while guiding practice.
Through the contribution of academic and clinical experts from a variety of professional disciplines, including nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, and physicians, standards of DSME were developed. A joint task force convened by the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) provided oversight by addressing changes needing to be made to assure patients with diabetes receive appropriate and quality care. Changes to the 2017 standards highlight the importance of diabetes self-management support as an ongoing process reflecting the value of counsel for improved diabetes self-care. Also, with the occurrence of several new technology-enabled models of care, standards for DSMES highlight both the education and motivation support benefited by people living with diabetes. While previous standards highlighted a multidisciplinary approach to diabetes education, the new standards feature a continued interprofessional model where the person with diabetes is the center of the health care team and responsible for daily management of diabetes.
The newly revised and updated standards for DSMES are published in this issue of The Diabetes Educator. Use of DSMES standards is valuable to diabetes educators in establishing, evaluating, and improving diabetes education. Special thanks to the task force for all their hard work in providing diabetes educators with the necessary information to provide evidence-based care to patients living with diabetes.