5. Wild Card
- Date: 2024-10-24
- Concurrent Session: Concurrent Session A
- Time: 2:45– 3:30 pm
- Room:
- Style: Presentation (information provided to audience, with opportunity for audience to ask question)
- Focus: Balance between both (e.g. Presentation of a best-practice guideline that combines research evidence, policy issues and practical steps for implementation)
- Target Audience: Clinical providers
Learning Objectives:
Participants will learn to:
- Identify common insulin injection technique (IT) errors using a developed simple, easy-to-use five-point checklist.
- Clinicians will confidently deliver targeted IT education to correct identified IT knowledge gaps that can improve glycemic control.
- Implement a tool like the five-point IT checklist utilizing an electronic medical record in your primary care setting.
Summary/Abstract:
At Maitland Valley Family Health Team (MVFHT), the Registered Nurse, and Certified Diabetes Educator, commonly known as the diabetes nurse educator (DNE), identified a gap during diabetic appointments regarding patient insulin injection technique (IT) awareness. The DNE developed a five-point checklist for clinicians to ask patients living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who use an insulin pen about their IT practice. The result of a 12-month study (July 2022–June 2023), and how to implement it in your practice will be shared. A statistically significant mean (p < 0.005) reduction of 1.79% between pre- and post-HbA1c was achieved by completing IT checklists in the EMR every 3 months and providing related IT education. The checklist assisted with identifying important IT errors, where 49.2% of patients reported one or more errors linked to poor glycemic control. The use of the five-point insulin IT checklist is effective and can result in insulin IT improvement, reduced injection errors, and improved glycemic control. Our study may help all other primary care settings decrease the incidence of insulin IT errors through systematic informed and directed education.
Presenter:
- Tanya Thompson RN, BScN, Certified Diabetes Educator Maitland Valley Family Health Team
- Jamie Black Information Technology Specialist Maitland Valley Family Health Team