Alka Chopra

My name is Roshanak and I am a Registered Nurse working as a
Certified Diabetes Nurse Educator at a Community Health Centre in Toronto.
I have been working in this field for over 8 years. Prior to starting my journey as a nurse, I worked as a dietitian in my home country (Iran) and have worked in both a community and a hospital setting. I worked with a wide range of clients and was also involved in providing diabetes education for newly diagnosed Type 1 & 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes. That is where my passion to empower my clients living with Diabetes really started. Now, practising as a diabetes nurse educator has helped to fulfill my dream of a career in diabetes education.
As educators, we generally consider ourselves as teachers rather than learners. However, as I reflect on my years as a nurse and what is means to be a diabetes educator, I realize that I have been more of a learner than as a teacher. Diabetes is such an interesting field and self-management plays a major role in good blood sugar control. It is really neat when a patient comes back and is excited to share with me his/her success stories in controlling their blood sugar. Those "aha" moments in diabetes education are what make what I do so enjoyable.

I hold following certifications. I make it my business to attend relevant conferences and workshops to expand my knowledge and skills so I can provide better care for my clients.

· Teach Facilitator (smoking cessation)
· Craving Change Facilitator
· CDE certification

When it comes to insulin therapy, I increased my knowledge by working with endocrinologists, attending training sessions and conferences and reviewing the Canadian Diabetes Guidelines. At the beginning of my career as a diabetes nurse educator, I had several challenges in insulin management and helping my clients who were on different types of insulin therapy. Over the years, complexity of my clients on insulin therapy has made me to overcome these challenges.

One of the case I always remember was when I assisted and motivated a lady with Type 2 Diabetes and coping with complications to initiate, and titrate insulin. Due to her very high blood sugar level, she required insulin therapy immediately, however it was almost impossible for her to overcome her fear to start insulin therapy. We worked together for a few sessions to just explain the insulin therapy, and benefit of initiating it. It was a long process and there was no guidance available at that time on how to overcome such a hurdle. I was not even confident in my own skills. Even I had fear on starting this client on insulin!
Anyways after a few visits she finally started multiple daily injections and I helped her to learn how to inject, titrate. After a few months, she was able to bring her Hb A1C down.

I always had an inner urge to arrange a workshop focused towards teaching novice diabetes educators on sailing through the challenges that come with insulin management and increase their confidence to initiate insulin. So, here I am..........

On that note, even for the advanced educators there is always something we can learn from a fellow educator. I would love to have you in my workshop.