Welcome to WADE, The Washington Association of Diabetes Educators
Debby Jackson RD, CD, MEd, CDE,
WADE Diabetes Educator Of The Year
2011
Debby Jackson, nicknamed “Splenda”, is a registered dietitian who is also ADA certified in childhood and adolescent weight management. Currently Jackson works as a diabetes nutrition educator for the Endocrine & Diabetes Clinic at Mary Bridge Children’s Health Center.
Jackson’s peers described her as having many talents as an educator. Her inherent ability in making the complex seem simple has been instrumental in the development of multiple educational resources. These resources are reported to be simple, easy to read and most important, easy to remember. An example is word rubrics that are easy to memorize such as: TAB, Timing, Amount, & Balance. Jackson has also co-authored education materials that are age appropriate, motivational, and present complex concepts in simple formats.
Using a patient centered framework, Debby developed three especially noteworthy educational programs at Mary Bridge. The first is “Team-Up ” which is a focused multidisciplinary service using a motivational interviewing/ transtheoretitical model to help teens with diabetes make small changes to improve self care. The second program is “Diabetes Tools for Growing Healthy Kids” which uses a gardening scenario to provide heart-healthy nutrition education to families after diagnosis. The third and most recent program is, “Don’t WAIT!” a comprehensive diabetes education program based on the AADE 7. This program combines behavior change, emotional support, teen group appointments, and family education using the Diabetes Conversation Maps to help overweight teens with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes in making healthier food choices, preventing diabetes, delaying the need for insulin injections, and preventing disease progression.
Debby has been involved with diabetes education since 1983. Throughout this time she has volunteered in some capacity for a variety of organizations including WADE, American Diabetes Association, and Diabetes Association of Pierce County. She is a past President of the American Diabetes Association, Washington Affiliate, and has been on the Board of WADE. She is a dedicated volunteer to many of the events at Mary Bridge and elsewhere, including: Little Kids Camp, Annual Family Holiday party, Walk to Cure Diabetes, Beat the Bridge Run, and lead dietitian and long-standing volunteer for Camp Leo. She also serves on the Family Advocacy Council and Shared Governance Committee at Multicare, providing patient advocacy, staff leadership, and an educator voice to services provided throughout the organization.
Debby lives what she teaches. She is a living example of how to balance an active and healthy lifestyle. First she is a dedicated mother and loving wife, second an honored professional and thir
Diabetes Educator Of the Year
WADE revealed the name of the 2010 Diabetes Educator of the Year at Friday’s awards presentation & banquet at the Annual Awards Banquet, May 21, at the Hyatt Hotel in Bellevue, WA. Chosen from a field of 3 nominated diabetes educators, Martha Price, DSNc, ARNP, CDE is the recipient of this most prestigious award. She is a diabetes educator for Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA. She also serves as Assistant Clinical professor in the department of Bio-Behavioral nursing at the University of Washington School of Nursing.
The award honors a diabetes educator who has made a special contribution to the field through dedication, innovation, and sensitivity in patient care. The award includes $500 and a commemorative plaque.
Martha earned her BSN and MSN from WVA University, and a Doctorate of Nursing Science from the University of California. She became interested in diabetes while working on the faculty at Rush University School of Nursing, Chicago, Illinois, and worked with two other faculty to design an integrated, in-patient diabetes care and education program. On a Robert Woods Johnson Primary Care Nursing Fellowship (1979 – 1980), she completed additional education to become a nurse practitioner, and then continued education and teaching in both primary care and diabetes research. She found the area of diabetes to be her passion, and continued her efforts to learn more about diabetes as a chronic condition, and, as importantly, how people with diabetes assimilate care into their lives. Her doctoral dissertation was about learning how those with T1 Diabetes actually use their experiences to learn diabetes self-care.
After four years as faculty at the UW School of Nursing (where she is still engaged as Assistant Clinical Professor), Martha took the full time position to be part of the Diabetes Expert Team within Group Health. Working with Dr. David K. McCulloch, Martha and Dave worked in concert to help coach primary care providers at GHC to improve diabetes management as well as develop an overall program of diabetes care delivery, including developing nursing protocols to establish guidelines for RNs in family practice settings.
She is described as a humble individual never boasting about her accomplishments. Her peers picture her as the driving force behind many of the positive changes accomplished at Group Health Cooperative. Naming just a few to keep the list brief; she co-authored and produced written patient education manuals for use in primary care at GHC (named “The Right Track Notebook (s)”, and helped design an on line patient information site (called the Diabetes Condition Center), and created and maintains the GHC network plan for insulin pumps ( “The Insulin Pump Handbook).
Her roles as researcher and consultant to ongoing research projects (Center for Health Studies and CQI) have allowed her to participate in working with the GHC clinical delivery system teams to build evidence based guidelines for diabetes clinical care and help establish best practice guidelines for both medicine and nursing.
Martha has written diabetes and nursing practice articles published in journals as the American Journal of Nursing, Diabetes Spectrum, and AADE in Practice. She continues to be a reviewer for Diabetes Care and The Diabetes Educator, and A Core Curriculum for Diabetes Education and has served as the chair of the American Association of Diabetes Educators’ Research Committee (2005 – 2007).
Currently, Martha works in the Group Health Cooperative’s Department of Endocrinology and manages GHC’s Insulin Pump Program, as well providing consultation services for primary care and selected specialties for patients engaged in intensive insulin therapy. The work is what Martha sees as the culmination of the very best aspects of all of her experiences with and passion about diabetes. She is affixed to the idea that ALL patients are compliant, but many need additional support to be successful – that includes the right treatment regimen which best fits with what is possible for the individual. Her challenge, she says, is not to tell the patient what to do, but rather to discover with them what will be the best approach and to stick with them to help them create and use the best experiences. Martha’s patients describe her going the extra mile to help folks make this transition for better management. One patient reports, “Martha tried me on 3 different pumps so that I could find what would work best for me.” Another remembers when she stopped by his house on her way home from work just to help him solve problems with his pump. And still another recalls: “I called her on the weekend while she was out walking her dog, Winnie. She stopped, sat down on a park bench, and helped work through the situation while Winnie patiently waited”.
On a personal side Martha is said to have a great sense of humor along with a kind and humble spirit. One can see these qualities in her art, as in her spare time Martha has become quite an accomplished water color artist. Martha donated one of her watercolors to the silent auction at this year’s annual meeting in Bellevue. The proceeds from that auction support the Karen Goldstein Memorial Lecture Fund. Martha contributed the painting, which she had no prior plans to sell, but did so because she had personally known and so respected Karen Goldstein. Martha’s painting sold for $200.00.
The award was presented to her by last year’s winner, Laurie Payne of Spokane. The following are excerpts from the announcement at the Spokane awards dinner:
Laurie Payne was the recipient of the 2008 WADE award for Diabetes Educator of the Year. Laurie has been a diabetes educator for 21 years and is highly respected in her role as educator in the Spokane community. She regularly participates in presenting education forums to the general public and has been seen on local television addressing questions of diabetes care.
Some notable professional achievements include developing workable strategies for adapting diabetes education to video conferencing for outlying rural areas including completing assessments, showing use of SMBG and doing insulin starts. In the absence of person to person contact she found ways to empower patients to develop their own meal and exercise plans. She has also adapted diabetes education techniques to meet the needs of Latino and pediatric populations. In addition, Laurie is part of the medical staff at camp “Fun in the Sun” for 2 weeks each summer.
Laurie’s co-workers describe her as “down to earth,” “warm and caring.” She is “calm and resourceful and a leader” in the diabetes team. She listens to everyone’s ideas and works within the team to create teaching and learning strategies that work for all. She is a role model in balance and lifestyle and enjoys many activities with her family including skiing, boating, camping, hiking and keeping up with her two teenage daughters.
A quote from one of Laurie’s patients sums up the impact she makes with her patients, “Laurie was so patient and kind, she has made a huge difference in my getting control of my diabetes and gave me the tools to keep in control.”