• Mette Due-Christensen, Gudrun Kaldan, Thomas P Almdal, Mette Glindorf, Kirsten E Nielsen, and Vibeke Zoffmann.
• Steno Diabetes Center, Gentofte, Denmark; Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, King's College London, London, UK. Electronic address: Mtdc@steno.dk.
• Patient Educ Couns. 2015 Jul 1; 98 (7): 890-4.

ObjectiveTo map the usage of out-of-office hours acute telephone counselling (ATC) provided by diabetes specialist nurses (n=18) for diabetes patients to explore potentials for improvement.MethodsA mixed methods study involved mapping of ATC-usage during 6 months and a retrospective audit of frequent users.ResultsAltogether, 3197 calls were registered that were related to 592 individual patients, corresponding to 10% of the population. Proportionally more users suffered from type 1 diabetes (p<0.001). ATC-users' mean HbA1c was 8.8% (73 mmol/mol) compared to 8.1% (65 mmol/mol) for all patients attending the clinic (p<0.001). Hyperglycaemia was the most frequent reason for calling. The use of ATC likely prevented 15 admissions. More than half of the calls came from general nurses based in the community (n=619) and general nurses and nursing assistants based in care homes (n=1018). The majority (75%) of patients called less than five times. However, 8% called 16 times or more accounting for 52% of all calls. A retrospective audit identified them as physically and/or psychologically fragile patients.ConclusionHyperglycaemia was the most frequent reason for calling, and insulin dose adjustment the most frequent advice given.Practice ImplicationsFrequent users identified need additional support.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

28 keywords...

hide…