Running head: DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING PLAN

Teaching Plan: How to check blood sugar with Glucometer

Truc La
NorQuest College
NFDN 1002 O01, O02 XL 2015
Assignment # 1
Fauziya Ali
August 20, 2015

DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING PLAN

Teaching Plan: How to check blood sugar with Glucometer

Client education is one of the most important roles for nurses in any health care setting.
Clients and family members have the right to health education so that they can make informed
decisions about their healthcare and lifestyle (Potter, Perry, Ross-Kerr, and Wood, 2009, p. 295)
because illness can be a temporary or can be permanent problem for the client; therefore, the
clients will have better knowledge how to control the problem and deal with the illness. In this
paper, I will discuss a teaching plan for the client on how to check blood sugar with Glucometer.
Additionally, I will include the learner assessment to find out what the learner needs, nursing
diagnosis, goal and teaching materials, environment assessment, teaching strategies and
rationale, its evaluation and reflection in this paper.
Assessment of Client and Client learning Needs
Assessment of client using the Nursing Metaparadigm; Learning needs; and
Readiness to Learn.
C. N. is a 68 years old female. She is living in the townhouse with her husband and her
daughter. C. N.s daughter is a single mother and has a six years old boy. The clients health
history includes: she was diagnosed with breast cancer on the left breast in 2005; she is a nonsmoker and does not drink alcohol; she is a housewife and has no allergy. The client has recently
received a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetic, and the doctor advises her to check the blood sugar
three time a day before taking her medication. In the conversation with C. N., I noticed that the
client was talking before I finished my question, and she did not give me the right answer. I
looked at the client ears and saw the client is wearing hearing aid, but something was not right. I
checked the client hearing aid device, and I noticed that the client forgot to turn on the hearing

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aid. As a result, I will ensure that the clients hearing aid will turn on during the education
sessions.
The client speaks Vietnamese, and she understands some English but cannot speak or
hear it fluently. Therefore, the client expressed her wish to have a teaching session in Vietnamese
because this will be more comfortable for her. Potter et al., (2009) suggest that communication
is a powerful therapeutic tool and an essential nursing skill used to influence other people and
achieve positive outcome (p. 263). However, communication is most effective when the
receiver and sender accurately perceive the meaning of each others message (Potter et al.,
2009, p. 263). This request will not be a problem because I also speak Vietnamese.
The client walks with her husband about 45 minutes every day. She prepares meal for the
whole family, so the client is quite independent. During this conversation, the client said I am
worried that checking the blood sugar 3 times a day by using the Glucometer is too complicate,
and I never check my blood sugar with Glucometer before. Additionally, the client prefer to
have the teaching session at home. The client is living in urban neighborhood and very quiet. The
teaching sessions were in the living room which has a big window and warm. For the first
teaching session, I noticed that the clients grandson is making a lot of noise and running around
causing interference with the teaching session a little bit. The client babysits him when her
husband and her daughter are working. Therefore, I suggested that the second teaching session
should be during the time that her grandson is at school, so the client can fully concentrate on
learning.
Potter et al., (2009) suggest everyone processes information differently by seeing and
hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, and analyzing and visualizing
(p. 299). My client told me that she would like me to show her how to use the Glucometer by

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letting her practicing with it, so she can remember it easily; therefore, she is a kinesthetic learner
who learn best when they are able to manipulate tools and find out how they work (Potter et
al., 2009, p. 299). After talking with the client I can see that she really wants to learn about using
the Glucometer by saying that I really want to learn how to check my own blood sugar, but I
have no idea how to check my blood sugar with the Glucometer. This attitude will make the
teaching sessions will go smoothly and have a better result because the client has big motivation
(Potter et al., 2009).
Nursing Diagnosis, Goal, and Learning Objectives
Nursing diagnosis: Deficient knowledge related to lack of information about how to use
Glucometer to check blood sugar as evidence using the Glucometer is too complicated, and I
never check my blood sugar with Glucometer before.
Goal and client involvement: Mrs. N. will demonstrate appropriate knowledge of how
to check and read her blood sugar after two teaching sessions. The client is agreed that the two
teaching sessions at home will bring many benefits for her.
Learning Objectives:
The first learning objective will be the psychomotor domain learning: the client will
demonstrate how to check her blood sugar with the Glucometer.
The second learning objective will be the cognitive domain learning: the client will
know how to read the blood sugar result.
Teaching Strategies and Rationale
Teaching Strategies
The client will check her blood sugar with
the Glucometer:

Rationale

DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING PLAN

Instruct the client how to wash her hand

Hand hygiene is the most important and

with soap and water then she needs to dry her most basic technique in preventing the
hand thoroughly before taking her blood

transmission of infections and the

sugar.

purpose is to remove soil and transient

organisms from the hands (Potter et al.,
2009, p. 651). Additionally, even small
amounts of food or sugar on your fingers
can affect your results (U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, 2015).

Instruct the client turns the machine on and

The client should not use the test strip

follows the instruction. However, the client

after the expiration date because the

needs to check the expiration date for the test

expiration test strip can give the wrong

strip.

reading (Accu-Chek, 2015).

Instruct the client where to prick to collect

From HealthlinkBC (2014) suggests that

blood.

do not prick the tip of your finger. If you

do, the prick is more painful and you may
not get enough blood to get accurate
results.

Show the client how to collect the right

If there is not enough blood on the test

amount of blood.

strip, the meter may not read the blood

glucose level accurately (U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, 2015).

Reading the result:

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Instruct the client how to read the result.

The client needs to know the normal

range for the blood sugar and then
compares the result with the order from the
doctor. According to MyHealth.Alberta.ca
(2014) indicates the blood sugar level
before meal should be from 4.0 to 7.0
mmol/L, and from 5.0 to 10.0 mmol/L 2
hours after meal.

Implementation of the plan

The client and I were agreed to device the teaching session in two days. Each teaching
session will have 2 hours. Before starting the teaching session, I always make sure that the
teaching environment is in good condition, and the client is comfortable in her sitting position.
Because Potter et al., (2009) suggest the environment can speed up or slow down the process of
learning so the ideal environment for learning is well-lit, well ventilated room with appropriate
furniture and a comfortable temperature (p. 298). I also told the client that she can stop me and
ask any question at any time if she needs to clarify anything. The first day, I explained the
teaching session in a simple ways and sat facing the client. After that I showed the client and
practiced with the client step by step about how to use the Glucometer because my client is a
kinesthetic learner. The second day of the teaching session, I went through all the steps with the
client again one more time because at the first teaching session, the client was a little distracted
by her grandson. After that, the client was doing all the steps by herself very skillfully while I
was watching the clients demonstration. At the end of the last teaching session, I also give her

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the phone number, so she can call me if she needs help with anything about checking her blood
sugar with Glucometer.
Evaluation and Refection
After the two teaching sessions, I felt that the client and I met the goal and outcome about
how to check the blood sugar with the Glucometer. The client understood the important of
washing her hand before taking her blood sugar. She was able to collect the right amount of
blood without difficulty and know how to read the result. Although the client was distracted by
her grandson on the first teaching session, but she still able to remember all the step about using
Glucometer. After all, the teaching session was successful because the learner was able to recall
and demonstrate all the steps by herself.
The teaching went well because I was a good listener from the beginning by listening to
the client, this attitude help me to find out what does the client needed and gained trust from the
client. Like Bastable (2003) suggests that listening rather than talking is the skill needed.
Because the uniqueness of the individual is fundamental to the humanistic perspective, much of
the learning experience requires a direct relationship between the educator and the learner (p.
62). Especially, on the second teaching session, I can see that the client used the Glucometer to
check her blood sugar very confidently. Additionally, I always make sure that the environment in
her house is safe and in good condition, so the client can be more comfortable. On the other
hand, there are two weakness in this teaching session that I need to improve: I should have check
the client the client hearing aid if the hearing aid is working before starting the conversation; I
should have pay more attention that she is the primary care giver for her grandson, therefore, I
could arrange a better time so the first teaching session could be more smoothly like the second
teaching session.

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8
Conclusion

In conclusion, teaching is playing an important role for everyone, so patient teaching is

not an exceptional. I believe that if the client has a good knowledge about the new diagnosis, the
client will have many benefits in maintaining and promoting health and preventing illness;
restore health; optimizing quality of life with impaired functioning (Potter et al., 2009, p. 295).
However, to make the teaching become more successful or happen, the learner needs to have the
will to learn, or else the teaching will not be succeed (Potter et al., 2009). I would use this
teaching in the future practice because I found it is very useful when it came to find out what the
client really needs, and it also helped me to have more understand on certain client. After all, I
am glad that I chose this topic for my teaching plan, and it is going to be very useful for me in
the future because type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases in Canada with more
than 60,000 new cases yearly. Nine out of ten people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes
(Government of Canada, 2013).

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References

Accu-chek. (2015, September 11). Accu-Chek blood glucose meter support. Retrieved from:
http://www.accu-chek.com/us/customer-care/meter-support.html
Bastable, S. B. (2003). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning of nursing
practices (2nd ed). Sudbury, Massachusettes: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved
from: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost
Government of Canada. (2013, November 14). Type 2 diabetes. Retrieved from:
http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/diseases-conditions-maladies-affections/diseasemaladie/diabete-eng.php
HealthLinkBC. (2014, July 25). Diabetes: Checking your blood sugar. Retrieved from:
http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthtopics/content.asp?hwid=aa19825
MyHealth.Alberta.ca. (2014, August 06). Diabetes: Blood sugar level. Retrieved from:
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/health/pages/conditions.aspx?Hwid=aa135726
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Ross-Kerr, J. C., & Wood, M. J. (Eds.). (2009). Canadian
fundamentals of nursing (4th ed.). Toronto, ON: Mosby/Elsevier Canada
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2015, May 08). Blood glucose meters: Getting the most
out of your meter. Retrieved from:
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/TipsandArticlesonDeviceS
afety/ucm109371.htm