People with diabetes have a lot to learn about diet and exercise, as well as monitoring their blood sugar and taking prescribed medication.
"Living every day with a disease that affects every aspect of their lives" demands current information and practice in new skills, said certified diabetes educator Susan B. Riley, DNP. The AADE-Bayer 2011 Innovation in Practice Award, a $3,000 grant, will help Riley set up evening classes for adults with diabetes at various Bulloch County schools.
"We as medical people can prescribe all kinds of wonderful products, but it really comes down to a lot of self management, the patient learning to choose proper foods, how to incorporate exercise, how to make good choices, how to use this medicine, how to take their insulin if they're on insulin," Riley said.
The American Association of Diabetes Educators, or AADE, chose Riley for the grant, the only one of its exact type awarded this year, because of her proposal's use of "Smart Board" technology to reach people in a non-medical setting.
A nurse practitioner for 30 years, Riley has worked for the last 19 years at Family Health Care Center, the Statesboro practice she and her husband, Dr. Thad Riley, share with another physician, Dr. Angela Davis, and nurse practitioner Connie Barnett.
In May Riley became one of the first 11 nurses to earn the new Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree at Georgia Southern University, and so now is also a "Dr. Riley," although not an MD. She made diabetes care the focus of her studies toward the DNP, after becoming a certified diabetes educator two years earlier.
In her grant proposal, Riley cited the fact that Bulloch County now has more than 70,000 people and limited availability of diabetes education.
"The closest place anybody can go or any doctor can even refer somebody for certified diabetes education is Memorial Hospital in Savannah, which is a long way to go to really learn about your disease process and how to take care of yourself," she said.
    Into the schools
Having served eight years on the Bulloch County Board of Education ending last December, Riley knew about the interactive whiteboards that had been installed in the local schools. Commonly known by the Smart Board brand name, the whiteboard is a digital update of the marker board. It displays the teacher's computer desktop for the whole class and lets students choose answers or move onscreen objects with a pen tool or remote control.
Family Health Care Center also installed a whiteboard that Riley uses in monthly classes for adults with diabetes. Patients do things like assemble foods on a virtual breakfast plate, learning how the carbohydrates add up.
"Patients have just loved it and I do the classes here in our office, but that limits it to just people that live downtown or happen to be in our practice," she said.
So Riley has obtained the school system's permission to hold monthly evening classes for adults in whiteboard equipped classrooms. She is working out details with Superintendent Lewis Holloway and plans to start the sessions in October or November. The Stilson and Portal schools have been chosen to host the first classes, Riley said, because these are farthest from the medical office in Statesboro.
"If it does real well, I'm willing to expand it to wherever the need is," she added.
School officials have offered the use of the classrooms rent-free, but Riley's program will pay janitorial fees, she said. The grant will also pay for materials and an $800 fee she will return to the AADE to have the program formally recognized.
    Sessions not free
The sessions will not be free, but Medicare, Medicaid and many private insurers cover charges for diabetes education in AADE recognized or American Diabetes Association certified programs.
The grant to Riley is the only one of its exact type awarded nationally this year, said Laura Roth Konopken, development director for the AADE. Bayer Diabetes Care entirely funds the Innovation in Practice Award.
"Diabetes education is a practice typically found at hospitals and more medical kinds of facilities, and the feeling amongst our organization is that, you know, that may be a barrier for some people wanting to take part. ... 'I don't want to go to the hospital for classes. I don't want to go to the clinic. But, oh, the school down the street, that's a little bit more comfortable for me,'" said Konopken.
In addition to the money, the award includes free registration for Riley to attend the AADE annual meeting in Indianapolis in August 2012, where she would be asked to report on her project.