It’s one thing not to be acknowledged for the work you do. It’s quite another when your hospital says you don’t do that work at all.
Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH) is saying that it “does not currently provide any specialized diabetes education for outpatients and inpatients.” For the certified diabetes educators at the hospital, this may come as a surprise.
The “integration team” is presently pushing forward a plan to bring in nurses and/or dietitians from the Port Hope Community Health Centre (CHC) to provide diabetes education not only to patients in the NHH’s dialysis unit, but to give best practices instruction to staff at the hospital. This is even though two seasoned certified diabetes educators are already on the staff of the Cobourg hospital and a third staff member is being supported towards certification.
There’s nothing worse for staff morale than telling somebody they don’t really exist, especially when they do.
Newly appointed NHH CEO Linda Davis may want to have a chat with her own certified diabetes educators before involving outside help. She could be surprised to learn that the expertise the hospital is seeking may be right under her nose.