2010 Diabetes Educator Of the Year

WADE revealed the name of the 2010 Diabetes Educator of the Year at Friday’s awards presentation & banquet at the Annual Awards Banquet, May 21, at the Hyatt Hotel in Bellevue, WA. Chosen from a field of 3 nominated diabetes educators, Martha Price, DSNc, ARNP, CDE is the recipient of this most prestigious award.  She is a diabetes educator for Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA.  She also serves as Assistant Clinical professor in the department of  Bio-Behavioral nursing at the University of Washington School of Nursing.               

The award honors a diabetes educator who has made a special contribution to the field through dedication, innovation, and sensitivity in patient care.  The award includes $500 and a commemorative plaque.

Martha earned her BSN and MSN from WVA University, and a Doctorate of Nursing Science from the University of California.  She became interested in diabetes while working on the faculty at Rush University School of Nursing, Chicago, Illinois, and worked with two other faculty to design an integrated, in-patient diabetes care and education program.  On a Robert Woods Johnson Primary Care Nursing Fellowship (1979 – 1980), she completed additional education to become a nurse practitioner, and then continued education and teaching in both primary care and diabetes research.  She found the area of diabetes to be her passion, and continued her efforts to learn more about diabetes as a chronic condition, and, as importantly, how people with diabetes assimilate care into their lives.   Her doctoral dissertation was about learning how those with T1 Diabetes actually use their experiences to learn diabetes self-care.

After four years as faculty at the UW School of Nursing (where she is still engaged as Assistant Clinical Professor), Martha took the full time position to be part of the Diabetes Expert Team within Group Health.  Working with Dr. David K. McCulloch, Martha and Dave worked in concert to help coach primary care providers at GHC to improve diabetes management as well as develop an overall program of diabetes care delivery, including developing nursing protocols to establish guidelines for RNs in family practice settings.

She is described as a humble individual never boasting about her accomplishments.  Her peers picture her as the driving force behind many of the positive changes accomplished at Group Health Cooperative.  Naming just a few to keep the list brief; she co-authored and produced  written patient education manuals for use in primary care at GHC (named “The Right Track Notebook (s)”, and helped design an on line patient information site (called the Diabetes Condition Center), and created and maintains the GHC network plan for insulin pumps ( “The Insulin Pump Handbook).

Her roles as researcher and consultant to ongoing research projects (Center for Health Studies and CQI) have allowed her to participate in working with the GHC clinical delivery system teams to build evidence based guidelines for diabetes clinical care and help establish best practice guidelines for both medicine and nursing.

Martha has written diabetes and nursing practice articles published in journals as the American Journal of Nursing, Diabetes Spectrum, and AADE in Practice.  She continues to be a reviewer for Diabetes Care and The Diabetes Educator, and A Core Curriculum for Diabetes Education and has served as the chair of the American Association of Diabetes Educators’ Research Committee (2005 – 2007).

Currently, Martha works in the Group Health Cooperative’s Department of Endocrinology and manages GHC’s Insulin Pump Program, as well providing consultation services for primary care and selected specialties for patients engaged in intensive insulin therapy.   The work is what Martha sees as the culmination of the very best aspects of all of her experiences with and passion about diabetes.  She is affixed to the idea that ALL patients are compliant, but many need additional support to be successful – that includes the right treatment regimen which best fits with what is possible for the individual.  Her challenge, she says, is not to tell the patient what to do, but rather to discover with them what will be the best approach and to stick with them to help them create and use the best experiences.   Martha’s patients describe her going the extra mile to help folks make this transition for better management. One patient reports,  “Martha tried me on 3 different pumps so that I could find what would work best for me.” Another remembers when she stopped by his house on her way home from work just to help him solve problems with his pump.   And still another recalls:  “I called her on the weekend while she was out walking her dog, Winnie.   She stopped, sat down on a park bench, and helped work through the situation while Winnie patiently waited”.  

On a personal side Martha is said to have a great sense of humor along with a kind and humble spirit.  One can see these qualities in her art, as in her spare time Martha has become quite an accomplished water color artist.  Martha donated one of her watercolors to the silent auction at this year’s annual meeting in Bellevue.  The proceeds from that auction support the Karen Goldstein Memorial Lecture Fund.  Martha contributed the painting, which she had no prior plans to sell, but did so because she had personally known and so respected Karen Goldstein.  Martha’s painting sold for $200.00.