How to Become a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE): Professional Certification

There are a couple of prerequisites needed before a candidate can be approved to sit for the exam.  The following requirements are taken directly from the eligibility requirements listed on the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators website:

Discipline

  • Clinical psychologist, registered nurse, occupational therapist, optometrist, pharmacist, physical therapist, physician (M.D. or D.O.), or podiatrist (D.P.M.) holding a current, active, unrestricted license from the United States or its territories.

    OR

  • Dietitian holding active registration as a dietitian with the Commission on Dietetic Registration or physician assistant holding active registration with the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.

    OR

  • Diabetes educator with a minimum of a master's degree in social work or exercise physiology from a United States college or university accredited by a nationally recognized regional accrediting body.

    OR

  • Diabetes educator with a minimum of a master's degree in nutrition, health education, or specified areas of public health from a United States college or university accredited by a nationally recognized regional accrediting body.*

Professional Practice Experience

All professional practice experience is defined as employment for compensation as a diabetes educator in the United States or its territories within the past five years.

Employment for compensation means to hold a job in which one is actively engaged in diabetes self-management training and for which paid income is comparable to other diabetes educators in the same area or region of the country. Only experience occurring AFTER completing the Discipline requirement can be counted toward the Professional Practice Experience requirement.

After meeting the Discipline requirement and before applying for the Examination, all of the following requirements must be met:

  1. A minimum of two years (to the day) of professional practice experience in diabetes self-management training.

    AND

  2. A minimum of 1,000 hours of diabetes self-management training experience.

    AND

  3. Current employment in a defined role as a diabetes educator a minimum of four hours per week, or its equivalent, at the time of application.

*Eligibility on the basis of an advanced degree in nutrition, health education, or public health is no longer be available, except those qualifying degrees that were completed and conferred by the degree granting institution by the end of 2005, provide that the required professional practice experience requirements are also completed and an Application submitted within 5 years (no later than 12/31/2010).

Advanced degrees in public health must be in an area of concentration specific to health education, health promotion, health and social behavior, or health communication. A degree in any other track or concentration, including administration, health policy, epidemiology, biostatistics, or population studies, is not accepted. To verify the program of study specific to the acceptable areas of concentration, an official transcript that indicates that an advanced degree was awarded and the area of concentration must be submitted with the Application for the Examination.