Diabetes education and basic insulin related knowledge assessment in nursing staff in a tertiary care hospital in India

Abstract

Nursing staff plays a major role in the delivery of insulin to hospitalized patients. We aimed at studying the adequacy of desired knowledge related to insulin in nursing staff in a tertiary care government-funded teaching hospital in India. A cross-sectional descriptive design study was conducted to assess the basic insulin-related knowledge in nursing staff by a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 101 nursing staff accepted to participate in the study and returned the completed questionnaire. Forty-one participants were female and 60 were male. Almost 80% of participants denied as trained for diabetes management in hospitalized patients in their nursing curriculum. Eighty-seven participants were comfortable giving insulin. Only two participants could identify basal and bolus insulin as the type of insulin needed to manage hyperglycemia. Twenty-five participants could identify the strengths of insulin vials available in India and only 8 could correctly mention the colour code of the corresponding insulin syringe. Only 15 participants could correctly identify the commonly used routes of inulin administration. Thirty participants could identify all the correct subcutaneous injection sites, however, at least one wrong site was chosen by 78 participants and 8 participants did not answer. A similar deficit in knowledge was seen in hypoglycemia management, glucose monitoring, insulin storage, expiry of inulin and injection techniques. This study shows a significant deficit in basic insulin-related knowledge in nursing staff. There is a need for continuous medical education of nursing staff to stay updated on Diabetes management.