Oakland Unified School District Hires Nation’s First Diabetes Nurse Educator
In an "unprecedented effort" to detect and prevent diabetes among students, the Oakland Unified School District has hired the nation's first diabetes nurse educator, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The nurse trains teachers to recognize diabetes symptoms and handle emergencies; teaches students about the disease, diet and exercise; and holds workshops for parents to teach them about diabetes research and ways to manage the disease. About 75% of the district's 52,000 students are African-American or Latino, groups that are disproportionately affected by the disease. The district is "aggressively" attempting to find undiagnosed children with diabetes before blurry vision, lethargy and other symptoms impact their ability to learn, the Mercury News reports. More than two million people in California have diabetes, and Ann Albright, chief of the Diabetes Control Program at the Department of Health Services, said that number is expected to double by 2020. "This disease is growing at an unprecedented rate. It's an epidemic, and we should all pay close attention to what Oakland is doing," she added (Hull, San Jose Mercury News, 9/15).
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