Is it possible to manipulate a glucometer to get low blood sugar levels? I had a patient last night that showed a reading of 26.
I calibrated the glucometer before med pass, had her take her reading twice (both matched) and checked my reading on the facility glucometer against mine. After administration of glucose gel, her blood sugar went to 86, so she was fine.
When I got to work tonight, I was told by another nurse that she manipulated the glucometer to get a low reading so she could have a snack in the evening.
So, is it possible that she pulled one over on me and how?
I'm not really sure why a diabetic would need to 'manipulate' their glucometer in order to get an evening snack since diabetics should not only be allowed, but should be encouraged to have an evening snack.
cleback said:
I've seen some pretty drastic measures taken by residents to cheat their diet or fluid orders, but I have not seen that. To manipulate both glucometers would be on the scale of "Oceans Eleven." Seems pretty unlikely.
There's not really any reason a resident would need to "cheat their diet or fluid orders" since they are really only recommendations, to force a diet or fluid order onto a resident would require a court order of incompetence.
I'm not really sure why a diabetic would need to 'manipulate' their glucometer in order to get an evening snack since diabetics should not only be allowed, but should be encouraged to have an evening snack.
There's not really any reason a resident would need to "cheat their diet or fluid orders" since they are really only recommendations, to force a diet or fluid order onto a resident would require a court order of incompetence.
You would think.... but as a nursing assistant, I'd still have patients on a fluid restriction stealing nurses' drinks from the nurses station in the middle of the night and then denying it, despite finding the stolen drinks in their room. (Still a bit sour about that, if you couldnt tell haha...). Not sure if they were legally declared mentally incompetent but something has to be off to be that unnecessarily deceptive.
I don't see how it would be possible to manipulate it to show a LOW #. As I've posted before on here, though, even a tiny bit of food/drink residue on a finger can make the # falsely HIGH.
Where to start? I work in a jail, the glucometer belongs to the facility and I have one that I carry in my backpack, as I am hypoglycemic.
The 26 reading scared the bejesus out of me, I administered the glucose gel without a doctor's order because I couldn't leave her for that long.
She is not diabetic, but claims to be hypoglycemic.
The parient takes her blood sugar and we get the glucometer back. The next day the nurse caught her pooling alcohol in the crease of her finger, getting a little blood in the alcohol and taking her reading. We have new orders to take her blood sugar ourselves and her readings are perfect.
Yes, I was had.
I really struggle to not be a hardened nurse but it is hard with this population.
The parient takes her blood sugar and we get the glucometer back.
Had your first post contained this information it would have presented a different picture. Most nurses would not hand over a glucometer to a family member to take a patient's blood sugar as it is irregular practice.
Where to start? I work in a jail, the glucometer belongs to the facility and I have one that I carry in my backpack, as I am hypoglycemic.
The 26 reading scared the bejesus out of me, I administered the glucose gel without a doctor's order because I couldn't leave her for that long.
She is not diabetic, but claims to be hypoglycemic.
The parient takes her blood sugar and we get the glucometer back. The next day the nurse caught her pooling alcohol in the crease of her finger, getting a little blood in the alcohol and taking her reading. We have new orders to take her blood sugar ourselves and her readings are perfect.
Yes, I was had.
I really struggle to not be a hardened nurse but it is hard with this population.
Sounds like she was pooling the alcohol to get a diluted sample. If she's not taking insulin and is getting readings of 26, she probably needs to be hospitalized for a 72 hour fast with c-peptide, proinsulin, and lab glucose levels monitored to check for something like an insulinoma.
MunoRN, RN
8,058 Posts
I'm not really sure why a diabetic would need to 'manipulate' their glucometer in order to get an evening snack since diabetics should not only be allowed, but should be encouraged to have an evening snack.
There's not really any reason a resident would need to "cheat their diet or fluid orders" since they are really only recommendations, to force a diet or fluid order onto a resident would require a court order of incompetence.