The nurse is assessing a patient's self-care skills to determine if further diabetes teaching is required. A patient who has been an insulin-dependent diabetic is best assessed by the nurse through:

Question

A) Asking the patient to describe the self-care skill
B) Direct observation of the self-care skill
C) Asking the family to describe the patient's ability to perform the self-care skill
D) Consulting the home health nurse to discuss self-care skills

Answer 1

Ans: B
Feedback: Nurses should assess the patient's ability to perform diabetes-related self-care skills as soon as possible during the hospitalization or office visit to determine whether the patient requires further diabetes teaching. While consulting a home care nurse is beneficial, an initial assessment should be performed during the hospitalization or office visit. Nurses should directly observe the patient performing the skills such as insulin preparation and infection, blood glucose monitoring, and foot care. Simply questioning the patient or his family members about these skills without actually observing performance of the skills is not sufficient.