Nurse-Directed Blood Glucose Management in a Medical Intensive Care Unit.

BACKGROUND

Insulin-delivery algorithms for achieving glycemic control in the intensive care unit require frequent checks of blood glucose level and thus increase nursing workload. Hypoglycemia is a serious complication associated with intensive insulin therapy.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate a nurse-directed protocol for blood glucose management that allows individualized insulin delivery within a predefined blood glucose corridor, intended to avoid hypoglycemia while maintaining adequate control of blood glucose level without increasing nursing workload.

METHODS

A nurse-directed protocol for blood glucose management was developed by an interprofessional team, and the protocol's performance was investigated in 175 patients compared with 384 historical controls.

RESULTS

With the nurse-directed protocol, hypoglycemia incidents declined significantly (31% vs 12%, < .001), and minimum blood glucose levels increased significantly (80 mg/dL vs 93 mg/dL, < .001). Mean and maximum blood glucose levels, the proportion of glucose readings within the target range (31% vs 26%, = .06), and the number of blood glucose checks (59 vs 58, = .85) remained unchanged with use of the protocol.

CONCLUSION

Implementation of the nurse-directed protocol for blood glucose management did not increase nursing workload but reduced hypoglycemia incidents significantly while maintaining adequate glycemic control.