夜間・休日における在宅糖尿病患者の電話相談

diabetes

看護総合科学研究会誌

Background: Problems such as low blood sugar, defective equipment, and other unexpected difficulty occur on outpatients with diabetes who need constant medication even outside office hours. Objective: This report aims to clarify the actual conditions of patient's telephone consultations by nurses during nighttime and holidays. Methods: Using the nursing management diary of a diabetes-specialized hospital (average number of outpatients per month: about 3,300), we investigated the 16-month period from 2005 April onward, analyzing the age, gender, and consultation records of the patients. Prior to the investigation, we received approval from the hospital's ethical review board. Results: The total number of consultations was 823, the monthly average was 51.4, the patients' average age was 63.8, and the ratio of men to women was 40.6% to 59.4%. Regarding the content of the consultations, concerns related to symptomatic troubles such as low/high blood sugar, high blood pressure and vomiting accounted for 55.6%, concerns related to treatment, such as the administration or misadministration of insulin, or the defective equipment, accounted for 27%, while other concerns accounted for 17.4 %. Conclusions: This study revealed that in cases where patients face unexpected difficulty they need guidance and assistance using timely and accessible telephone consultation by nurses even during nighttime and holidays.