SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE
VOLUME 8 NUMBER 3 • SEPTEMBER 2011
125
Diabetes Personality
GET THE MESSAGE OF DIABETES
OUT THERE
O
nce a nurse, always a nurse! This is the
deeply felt view of Sr Kamaretha Beck-
ert. She took some years off to raise her
family before embarking on a new career 12 or
13 years ago, as a diabetes nurse educator (DNE)
based in Paarl, Western Cape.
She and her colleague, Dr Nickie Bernard, recently
won the 2011 Servier Award for Community Involve-
ment in Diabetes for their passionate commitment to
diabetes care and education. ‘He is a wonderful and
supportive colleague and we feel honoured to have
been recognised with this award’, she says. ‘Some-
times as we push and pull, we wonder whether we’re
really getting there. This underscores the importance
of what we’re doing and motivates us to further our
efforts.’
It was Dr Bernard who was instrumental in Sr
Beckert becoming a DNE. When she wanted to get
back into nursing, he asked her to help run a diabetes
clinic. After training at the Centre for Diabetes and
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Endocrinology (CDE), she worked at the clinic for a
number of years before branching out as an inde-
pendent. ‘I wanted to be able to offer my services in
the public sector as well’, she recalls. ‘It’s important
to me to make a real difference in the community and
I felt I needed a bigger scope than just working for
one group of doctors in the private sector.’
Her work takes her to Stellenbosch and Worces-
ter, as well as Paarl. She visits hospitals, where she
works with patients; she runs support groups for type
2 diabetes patients and even lectures at a Welling-
ton centre that trains home-based nurses, equipping
them with the knowledge to deliver optimal care.
When a patient is referred to her, she makes use
of an educational tool called BodyLink to educate
them about what diabetes is. ‘To be able to take
control of something, you first need to understand
it’, she says. ‘I approach the condition holistically,
explaining its complications and its treatment. I
make sure patients understand the importance of
diet and exercise in managing diabetes, along with
the role of medication. When indicated, I guide
them through the process of initiating insulin.
All this needs to be done slowly, carefully and
sensitively, as newly diagnosed patients are often
Sr Beckert addressing diabetic children at an introduction and training camp.
Sr Kamaretha Beckert and Dr Nickie Bernard
receiving their Servier Award for Community
Involvement in Diabetes at the recent CDE
congress.
