Considerations:
- Provide the student with as much privacy as possible
- Encourage the student to assist in the procedure as much as he/she is able to help student learn self-care skills
- Ensure strips are contained in a tightly sealed container and show no signs of discoloration
- Prolonged exposure of test strips to air may lead to inaccurate results
- Discolored test strips should be discarded
Supplies:
- Blood glucose monitor
- Testing strips
- Sterile disposable lancet
- Automatic lancet or lancet pen
- Cotton ball
- Sharps container
- Individualized Health Plan (IHP) and/or Healthcare provider’s order
Click on the photo to access the video.
- Position student to provide as much privacy as possible
- Explain the procedure to the student at his/her level of understanding
- Encourage the student to assist in the procedure as much as he/she is able to help student learn self-care skills
- Gather supplies and place on a clean surface
- Check expiration date on testing strips
- Ensure strips are contained in a tightly sealed container and show no signs of discoloration
- Discolored test strips should be discarded
- Perform quality control on equipment per manufacturer’s instructions
- Or verify that appropriate quality control has been completed
- Wash hands
- Put on gloves
- Have student wash hands or clean the student’s fingertip with warm wet cloth, let it dry
- Insert the monitor specific test strip into meter
- Calibrate meter by matching test strip code to code on the meter (if required)
- Insert new lancet into lancing device (per lancet devise manufacturer’s instructions)
- Using lancing device on the side of student’s fingertip or other specified location (per meter specific or medical order), to get a drop of blood
- Do not use pads of fingers
- Gently squeeze or massage finger until a drop of blood forms
- Touch and hold the edge of the test strip to the drop of blood, and wait for the result
- Blood glucose level will appear on the meter’s display
- Meters do not only display numbers
- Some display “Lo” or “Hi” for results outside of the meter’s parameters
- Some display error messages
- Consult with the meter manual to determine the meaning of messages
- Hold cotton ball on student’s finger until bleeding stops
- Place used lancet in sharps container
- Once blood glucose level was displayed, remove test strip and throw away per school policy
- Remove gloves
- Wash hands
- Document blood glucose reading in student’s healthcare record
- Follow health care provider’s orders for snacks, hyper or hypoglycemia, or insulin coverage
- Update parent’s and healthcare provider as needed
Resources:
2013 Consumer Guide: Continuous Glucose Monitors
American Diabetes Association (2013). Diabetes Forecast: The Healthy Living Magazine. Available at:http://forecast.diabetes.org/files/images/v66n01_p50-51_0.pdf
2013 Consumer Guide: Blood Glucose Meters
American Diabetes Association (2013). Diabetes Forecast: The Healthy Living Magazine. Available at:http://forecast.diabetes.org/files/images/v66n01_p41-47_1.pdf
2013 Consumer Guide: Insulin Pumps
American Diabetes Association (2013). Diabetes Forecast: The Healthy Living Magazine. Available at:http://forecast.diabetes.org/files/images/Jan13_pumps_2-27_spread.pdf
2013 Consumer Guide: Insulin Pens
American Diabetes Association (2013). Diabetes Forecast: The Healthy Living Magazine. Available at: http://forecast.diabetes.org/files/images/v66n01_p60_0.pdf
2013 Consumer Guide: Infusion sets
American Diabetes Association (2013). Diabetes Forecast: The Healthy Living Magazine. Available at: http://forecast.diabetes.org/files/images/v66n01_p56-57_0.pdf
American Diabetes Association: Webinar: Safe at School: Keeping Kids with Diabetes Safe at School
Video is geared toward parents of children with diabetes but provides a helpful perspective for the school nurse on the information that is being given to parents on how to work with the school staff to provide a safe environment for their child.
American Diabetes Association: Training Resources
National Diabetes Education Program: Diabetes in Children and Adolescents Webinar Presentation
National Diabetes Education Program: Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed: A Guide for School Personnel
References:
American Diabetes Association. (2013). Checking Your Blood Glucose. Available at: http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/blood-glucose-control/checking-your-blood-glucose.html.
Bowden, V. R., & Greenberg, C. S. (2012). Pediatric nursing procedures (Third Edition). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Connecticut State Department of Education. (2012). Clinical Procedure Guidelines for Connecticut School Nurses. Available at:
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/publications/clinical_guidelines/clinical_guidelines.pdf
Acknowledgment of Reviewers:
Andrea Monicken, BSN, RN
Diabetes Educator
Aurora Healthcare