Diabetes Care and Education Specialist University Of California, San Francisco Walnut Creek, California, United States
Diabetes self-management is an essential skill for any individual with diabetes. Multiple professional associations recommend providing diabetes education as part of the discharge planning process for patients hospitalized for non-critical illness. Bedside nurses are expected to teach patients basic diabetes survival skills but can be unprepared and overwhelmed with competing tasks. Without a clearly defined pathway or bundle for the nurse to follow, education delivered solely by the bedside RN may be fragmented, and the patient may leave the hospital without the necessary survival skills needed to manage their diabetes independently at home. This poster will describe a novel order panel with clearly outlined tasks for bedside nurses to use to initiate diabetes education prior to discharge.