CDCES Shares Experience at Children With Diabetes Conference
Aug 27, 2024, 17:58 PM
By Steven E. Zortman, BSN, RN, PMH-BC, CDCES
I am a nurse at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Earlier this year, I applied for the ADCES/Children With Diabetes Friends for Life Fellowship scholarship and was chosen as the recipient for which I am eternally grateful.
Let me share a little bit about myself and my journey with diabetes. On May 24, 2013, my 3-year-old daughter, Riley, was admitted to Nationwide Children’s Hospital with new onset Type 1 diabetes. We spend three days at the hospital learning all the new things that would help us be successful with managing this disease. When we were walking out of the hospital, I looked at my wife and said, “That is what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. I’m going to nursing school and I’m going to become a diabetes nurse educator.” And that is exactly what I did.
Over the next four years, I accepted a position at NCH as a Certified Medical Assistant, and through the support and kindness from my program coordinator, I was able to work full time while pursuing my nursing degree. I graduated from nursing school in December 2017, passed NCLEX in February 2018 and began working as a nurse, eventually accepting a position as a Diabetes Nurse Educator in July 2021. In March 2024, I passed the CDCES Exam and can now officially call myself a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist.
Several years after our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, my wife and I decided to enroll our other two children with TrialNet. After several months, we were notified that our oldest daughter, Hannah, did not have any of the autoantibodies, however, our son Andrew tested positive for three. For the next three years, we did annual oral glucose tolerance tests, until he tested positive for a fourth, then a fifth, then started to have dysglycemia. We continued with the OGTTs every six months until he eventually started on insulin in April 2024.
In January 2024, I applied for the ADCES/CWD Fellowship scholarship, asking one of my attending physicians to write a letter of recommendation for me. I submitted all of the requested information and was contacted by the President of ADCES, Jane Dickinson, to inform me that I had been selected. I also received an official letter from ADCES informing me of my selection. Travel, lodging and the conference would all be paid through this scholarship, and I immediately began making travel plans.
I asked my wife and three children if they would like to attend with me but, unfortunately, each of them had already made plans for that specific week in July and weren’t able to go. About a week before the conference, Riley approached me and asked if she could still go. I became excited and began to look for airline tickets (this would have been the first time flying for the both of us), however, since I booked my flights several months ago, the reasonable rate I received at that time was no longer available. I immediately cancelled my flight and decided to drive from Columbus, Ohio to Orlando, Florida in July, and I am so glad I did.
Attending the Children With Diabetes Friends for Life Conference was one of the absolute best experiences of my life. Meeting the Hitchcock family and all of the other Fellows during that week was so beyond rewarding. All of the Fellows in my cohort and I exchanged phone numbers and followed each other on social media, and we regularly keep in touch.
Being around like-minded parents and families who have experienced exactly what my wife and I have brought so much joy to my heart, but the absolute best part of this experience was that I was able to take my almost 15-year-old daughter with me on a cross-country road trip for her to meet and interact with people her age who are going through exactly what she is going through. She left CWDFFL24 with several new friends that she is still in contact with today.
Because I was able to attend CWDFFL24, I have begun to build a relationship with this organization. I was also able to attend ADCES24 in New Orleans earlier this month and actually ran into Jeff and several other members of the CWD Board of Directors, each of whom remembered me, greeted me warmly and welcomed me in like family! I can’t begin to tell you how much I look forward to attending CDWFFL25 next year!
Thank you again ADCES and CWD for choosing me as the recipient of this scholarship award this year! It has honestly changed my life having been able to experience this event!