Hello everyone, just want to let you know that both exams are almost updated to the 2018 Diabetes Canada guidelines. You should see updates to the practice quizzes in December and the both exams will be ready in January. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at cdestudycourse@gmail.com.

Thanks

Esmond

I’m currently in Halifax for the 2018 Diabetes Canada/CSEM Professional Conference! I will be updating this post with interesting information that I learn. If your in Halifax as well please give me a shout via email at cdestudycourse@gmail.com if your going for lobsters or  some beers, want to chat about the exam or my website! Thanks

Esmond

October 10th- Pre-conference A: Lets Get Started CDE Preparation Program

Karen Gorecki and Bonita Nowe-Matheson are such great speakers. If you intend to write the exam, even if have have written before, I would highly recommend this pre-conference event. This year they focused on: Education Theory, Nutrition and Insulin

Education

Empowerment is a concept that is client centered, collaborative and facilitates self directed behavior change. Please see Funnel and Anderson for more details

Note that Adult Learners are self-directed, autonomous, bring their own experiences and learning needs to be meaningful and relevant.

Learning modes include 1) Visual 2) Auditory 3) Kinesthetic 4) Tactile. Look to Fleming and Mills for more information.

Styles of Learning include Accomodators, Divergers, Convergers and Assimilators. Google Kolb for more information.

Domains of Learning include 1) Cognitive (able to state sx/tx of hypoglycemia 2) Affective (able to acknowledge fears of starting insulin and 3) Psychomotor (being able to inject insulin correctly)

Motivational interviewing is a client centered approach that addresses ambivalence to change. The four pillars of motivational interviewing are partnership, acceptance, compassion and evocation. The four techniques of motivational interviewing are expressing empathy, developing discrepancy, rolling with resistance and increasing self efficacy.

Standards of Education are also important for the test. Knowing the concepts of Structure, Process and Outcome will be helpful on the test.

Nutrition

Carbohydrate counting and sick day management are usually tested on the exam

Know BMI

Know glycemic index. You can visualize them as gushers (high GI foods that turn into sugar quickly and gush sugar into your blood) or tricklers (low GI foods that turn into sugar slowly and trickle sugar into your blood).

Remember that when counting carbohydrate for insulin dosing you subtract fibre from the total carbohydrate. Fibre does not increase blood sugars but is included in the total carbohydrate count on food labels.

Insulin

Principles of insulin adjustment. 1) Treat lows first 2) Look at fasting sugars 3) Look at post prandial sugars 4) Only adjust one insulin at a time

Note that insulin adjustments for exercise have changed to what is recommended on pg S-57 of the guidelines.

The national Diabetes conference in Halifax was awesome and I would encourage anyone interested in diabetes to go at least once. The location changes every year. Next year in 2019 it will be in Winnipeg, Manitoba and in 2020 it will be in Calgary, Alberta.

Hello everyone, I am almost done updating Practice Exam #1 from the 2013 guidelines to the 2018 guidelines. I am also working on a free statistics quiz which will give you questions such as:

In 2015 what was the estimated prevalence of diabetes in Canada?

A) 5.7%
B) 9.3%
C) 10.1%
D) 12.1%

Once the quiz is up you will have your answers! And more practice questions as well. If you would like to ask me anything please email me at cdestudycourse@gmail.com.

Esmond Wong

Hello everybody, the Screening Quiz in the Free Quizzes section has been updated to the 2018 guidelines. I will probably add some more questions to it but it is now to date with the current guidelines. Enjoy!

The Targets Quiz has now been updated to the new 2018 Diabetes Canada guidelines. At the end of the quiz you can find a Cheat Sheet that includes the A1c and blood glucose targets for the different populations.

Exam writers are starting to get their results. Please check your mail in the next week as you should be getting your results soon!

Read the question slowly and carefully. Some questions will ask “which of the following is correct” and some questions will ask “which of the following is incorrect“. I caught myself choosing the wrong answer because I did not read the question carefully at first. There will also be lots of questions where they give you 4 choice and you will do none of those choices in real life. You can complain about it afterwards but complaining about it during the test and getting angry wont help you pass. In those situations try to find the least worst answer and that will likely be the correct answer, even if its something you would not do in real life. Also, try not to think too deeply into the question. I don’t and neither will the test writers. Your job is to see what the test writers want (not what is the deepest) from the question and answer it to their satisfaction. You can analyze every question very deeply, and maybe you are technically correct at a deep level, but if you miss what the test writer wants then you are wrong. So try to relax and enjoy the process of learning. Its been my pleasure to be your guide.

Thanks

Esmond

Hello, everyone. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your preparation for the examination. It has been my pleasure to be part of your journey.

I will be available from 9am to 5pm (Mountain Standard Time in Calgary) on Friday, May 25 for the 2018 Q and A session to answer your questions (part of Package #2). I will no longer be answering posts on the exam forum (part of Package #1). The exam forum will remain open for a few days after the exam. Please feel free to post examination questions on the forum to see if you chose the right answer.

For the Q and A session feel free to email me 2-3 questions per person. I would like to clarify that the questions must be sent from the email address that you used to purchase Package #2. I will then email you back the best answer that I can give on short notice. To provide the most educational benefit for all users, I will also post your question anonymously on the 2018 Q and A session page for everyone else to view. I will endeavor to answer all your questions but please understand there are over a hundred users and only one of me.

The new questions and answers will be visible once you hit refresh on your browser. PLEASE DO NOT hit the refresh button multiple times as a hundred users refreshing the same page will CRASH THE SERVER for the entire night!!! It will take me 15-45 minutes to answer questions so please only hit refresh every 45-60 minutes.

Thanks

Esmond

I’ve added the Standards for Diabetes Education in Canada resource by Diabetes Canada in the Suggested Resources section. I think the glossary of terms may be help for questions related to the Education/Research competency.

Remember on the exam that you only have 3.5 hours to complete 165 questions. Basically you have 1.3 minutes per question. If you are stuck on a question then go to the next question. Remember there are twenty five “pilot” questions that are simply being tested and do not count for marks. If you spend 10 minutes on a tricky question that is worth no marks then you have wasted a lot of time. Do not waste too much time on one question, just move on to the next question. For more tips please see the 2017 Q and A session. Best of luck of the exam!

On May 17th between the 11pm and 12am (standard mountain time in Calgary) I am updating my website. Please do not start any exams during this time or they may be blank. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Esmond