November was an exhausting month for healthcare professionals in diabetes! So many causes and organizations were recognized: National Diabetes Education Week November 6-12, Nurse Practitioner Week November 7-13, and World Diabetes Day on November 14. President Obama proclaimed November as National Diabetes Month, but he is not the first President to do such a proclamation.
I participated in some great events in November - one of which was the Big Blue Test. This awareness activity encouraged people with diabetes to test their sugar, get active, test again, and share their results online. One of the nice things was that people did not have to have diabetes to do the test. I got many of our community members involved and some were surprised to find out they were at high risk for diabetes.
Another fun activity was wearing blue on Fridays. I even went further by painting my nails with the blue circle! Our clinic staff got white shirts with the blue circle and decided to wear them on World Diabetes Day. We took a picture and sent it to the Kodak jumbotron in Times Square. Did you know that the blue circle now stands for the unity of the whole diabetes community - and not just World Diabetes Day?
The month is now over, but I hope this type of awareness and recognition continues throughout the year. For people with diabetes and for diabetes educators, diabetes management is a 24/7 job that does not take days off to rest or for holidays.
What did you do to raise diabetes awareness in November? Have you thought about preparing for next year and if so, what do you plan to do differently?