In-Patient Care

This year has seen great developments in the provision of Inpatient Diabetes care across our Trust.  Two new full time Diabetes Specialist Nurses have been appointed.  Sarah Kelly and Hayley Elliott join Tricia Fairburn (Lead Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse) at York Hospital and Charlene Sargeant, who became the first Inpatient DSN for Scarborough.  Her arrival will provide improved inpatient support for our diabetes patients and ward staff.

The aim of the Inpatient Diabetes Team is to improve the quality of care and service provision for those who are admitted to our hospital who have diabetes.  With the increase in the team, it is hoped that through communcation, co-ordination and education across both sites, our gaps in knowledge can be narrowed and the quality of our care improved.

Expanding the team has enabled us to start performing admission assessments on Post Take medical patients, identifying diabetes patients early is crucial, in ensuring correct medications are prescribed and four times daily monitoring for first 48hours stipulated.

The main focus for our team in 2015 is to introduce the Think Glucose Campaign for Scarborough, increasing awareness of Charlene's role within the hospital setting and supporting her re-establish the Link Nurse meetings, where a designated member of staff from each ward attends quarterly meetings for education on diabetes.  Link Nurse meetings are essential to disseminate information back to the wards. Across both sites we have re-introduced an educational programme for the use of BD auto-sheild safety needles.

A great amount of work has been out into the development of new pathways for diabetes management.  A new insulin prescription chart will be rolled out across the Trust in January 2015.  The new chart provides a pull off community prescription for the discharge of our patients who are on insulin - allowing 96hours of cover for the GP's and Community Nursing Teams.

Pathways for management of DKA and HHS are also well in development - with the arrival of 6 Blood Ketone monitoring machines for York and Scarborough - expected early 2015.  These charts will be simultaneously rolled out across the sites, with support and education on their use provided.

"These are exciting and challenging times for the Inpatient Diabetes Specialist Nursing Team........"