You really need to read up as much as possible about it yourself. If you rely on the NHS you will need lots of luck. If i sound disenchanted with the NHS, it's because i am. Other than that i can't really offer any advice.
Quite a number of us have DN horror stories.. I used my anger to try to prove them wrong and went very low carb almost from day one with great results. If you are able to channel it that way the "i'll show you" trick seems to work for me pretty well.
The last time I visited a diabetic nurse was part of my care plan visits. She told me at the end that I probably knew more than she did. Funny thing is to be a diabetic nurse you have to have nurse training but not diabetic training. Work that out.
I saw my dn last week. My blood test was the best since being diagnosed 9 years ago. She seemed genuinely surprised and pleased when I told her I have only been taking half my prescribed meds, but low carbing. I did say that I felt disappointed that it had never been suggested by her, doctors or originally dietitian to cut carbs. She did say that things were changing very slowly and she would take that on board. She also said that she can't even get some people to cut sugar from their tea! Congratulated me on what I had achieved. I think to a certain extent their hands are tied with the old regime.
Not sure why, but I don't really see a DN - I just see my GP - which is fine, as he is more or less agreeing to whatever I ask. After my second meeting with him, he said I probably knew more about diabetes than the DN anyway.
I just have to re-educate him and get "statins" out of his vocabulary where I am concerned ... as not even sure why he mentioned them!
As far as I can remember, I think the NICE guidelines suggest every diabetic is put on Statins. I can only presume they don't if the Cholestrol is less than the statutory '4'. Also, I believe GPs are still being paid an incentive to prescribe statins ...