Continuous Glucose Monitoring and Time in Range: Improving Data for Diabetes Management

Nursing roles in diabetes management.

A continuous glucose monitor reader (or a smartphone app) scans the sensor attached to the patient’s body for interstitial fluid glucose level and can provide data such as average blood glucose level or percentage of time spent in a target range over a given period of time.

Knowledge is power. When a person with diabetes knows their blood glucose levels, they can better self-manage lifestyle choices and medications and be an active participant in preventing complications. Glucose information can be obtained through a variety of methods. The majority of people with known diabetes receive reports on their glucose from the health care provider who is able to do lab work to obtain fasting or random blood glucose level, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c, or just A1c) level, and urine glucose.

Nurses play an integral role to partner with the patient about their diabetes and provide education on the meaning of glucose measurement. In the outpatient setting, nurses can help the patient adjust insulin dosages and work on glucose monitoring skills and interpretation. Inpatient, nurses oversee and utilize glucose results and help with self-management skills in anticipation of care […]

2024-06-19T10:57:17-04:00June 19th, 2024|Diabetes, digital health, Nursing, patient engagement, Technology|1 Comment
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Involving Nurses in Hospital Staffing Decision-Making

A qualitative study that looks at the experiences of nurses who have served on staffing committees.

When I am faced with challenging situations and issues that involve multiple stakeholders, I seek guidance or information from others to make the most informed decisions. This is a practice many health professionals and researchers emulate, and it makes sense to do this, yet when it comes to the topic of nurse staffing in hospital settings, nurses are not usually involved in the process. If they are involved to some degree, it is likely because of a hospital’s pursuit for nursing excellence recognition through shared governance and/or the external pressure of state laws, like mandated nurse staffing committees.

Nurse autonomy and engagement means better care.

Over the years, research has shown how increases in nurse autonomy and engagement can positively benefit patient care and support nurse retention, yet how do these concepts apply to nurse staffing? In what ways are those concepts translated into practice or policy efforts? These were the questions that initially guided me.

Seeking a real voice in nurse staffing policymaking.

In a survey exploring the concept of staff nurse involvement in hospital staffing policymaking, most nurses described feeling powerless. with little […]

2024-03-20T10:15:39-04:00March 20th, 2024|nurse staffing, Nursing, nursing research, patient safety|0 Comments
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Why Nurses Assist Falling Patients Despite the Risk

A too-common scenario.

Joe opens his eyes and looks through the window of his hospital room. He has always been early to rise. Even at age 82, he can’t shake the habits he learned when he was young.

“I’m woozy again,” Joe thinks as he sits up in bed. His medication sometimes makes him feel that way. Joe presses the call light so a nurse can help him to the bathroom. The nurses have been reminding him to do that so he won’t fall.

Then he reconsiders. “I can make it on my own. I don’t want to bother the nurses. They need to help the patients who really need it.” Joe moves to the edge of his bed. His walker isn’t nearby, but he urgently needs to reach the bathroom. Still dizzy, Joe holds onto the bed for a moment to keep from falling forward. After a moment, he manages to stand up and walk to the bathroom. As he enters the room, his dizziness returns, and his legs suddenly feel weak.  A feeling of dread washes over Joe as he begins to fall…

Nurse Smith starts her rounds and is looking forward to seeing Joe. He is always up early to greet her with a smile and a joke. As she opens the door to his room, she sees him entering his bathroom without his walker. She moves quickly toward him, but he suddenly sways forward. She knows he is going to fall. Reacting immediately, she grabs him by the torso […]

2024-02-20T10:44:39-05:00February 20th, 2024|Nursing, nursing research, patient safety, Quality improvement|1 Comment
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The Pitfalls of Being the ‘Nice’ Patient: A Nurse’s Perspective

Image Brent Keane/via Pexels

I have often heard health care professionals in various environments say, “If you’re nice to the nurses and doctors who take care of you, you’ll get better care.” As a bedside nurse myself, I understand the sentiment. No busy health care worker loves being met with antagonism or pressing demands that don’t strike us as critically urgent.

But when my husband and I both became patients with serious illnesses last year, we learned the clinical pitfalls of being the nice patients. I am left wondering how patients should be expected or permitted to advocate for their own care without worrying that they will be frowned upon or brushed off because they’re perceived as “difficult.”

First cautionary tale.

In early 2022, I discovered a small lump under my right breast that I initially wrote off as a cyst. Surely, I told myself, as a woman in her mid-40s with no risk factors for breast cancer, this had to be benign. A screening mammogram in May 2022 gave me an all-clear, and I went on my way.

But by November, I knew the lump had grown. I reached out to my PCP to ask for a diagnostic mammogram, and he emailed back a casual reassurance. “I know you’re worried, but […]

2024-02-07T16:57:09-05:00February 6th, 2024|Nursing, nursing stories, patient experience, Patients|15 Comments
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The Healing Power of Animals: Reducing Stress in Patients and Nursing Students

Nursing students are known to have high stress levels during their nursing programs. While many researchers have explored different coping mechanisms to help nursing students cope with their stress and anxiety, not many have looked at animal interventions.

I am a huge fan of animal interventions after seeing their positive effects on patients (and staff) while I was working bedside in the hospital. Frustrated or anxious patients would usually become more accepting of care after a visit from an animal. Scared and lonely patients who were shutting down became more vibrant and open. Visitors and staff also benefitted from the visits. There were many times that as the therapy animal came down the hallway to a patient room, staff members stopped and took a moment to relax with the animal in a way that clearly refreshed them.

Becoming a therapy animal handler.

Seeing the effects of therapy animals in the hospital inspired me to pursue being a therapy animal handler myself. The hospital where I work had rabbits as part of their therapy animal program. This was a small enough animal for me to handle and care for. I picked out my first two, and I was hooked from the get-go.

The rabbits are very interactive—I like to say they are nosy. […]

2023-09-18T11:45:53-04:00September 18th, 2023|Nursing, nursing students, patient experience|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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