Changing roles in community health care: Delegation of insulin injections to health care support workers
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Cath Hemingway; Sarah Alton; Maria Levesley; Julie Dutton; Lisa Farndon; Kelly McCaskill
- Source
- British Journal of Community Nursing. 23:14-19
- Subject
- Scope of practice
media_common.quotation_subject
medicine.medical_treatment
Allied Health Personnel
Pilot Projects
State Medicine
Patient care
030207 dermatology & venereal diseases
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Nursing
Community health care
Health care
Humans
Insulin
Medicine
030212 general & internal medicine
media_common
Community and Home Care
Practice Patterns, Nurses'
Delegation
business.industry
General Medicine
Community Health Nursing
United Kingdom
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
Job satisfaction
business
Community nursing
- Language
- ISSN
- 2052-2215
1462-4753
Diabetes is a common long-term condition affecting many people many of whom require support with their insulin injections at home. These injections are often carried out by community nurses if individuals are unable to self-manage their condition. This paper describes a pilot project where health care support workers were trained to administer insulin at home for suitable patients. Four patients took part in the pilot study and two support workers were trained to give the insulin injections. The project was evaluated well by all those who took part. It freed up 80 hours of nursing time while also providing the support workers with an extended scope of practice and associated increased in job satisfaction. No untoward medication errors were reported as a result of this initiative. This project will now be rolled out to the wider nursing teams with a staggered approach to the delivery of the training to ensure there is not a detrimental effect on patient care.