Rarely

Hehe, that reminded me of something that happened when I worked on nights as an aide a couple years ago. The facility was really adamant that a light always be on when entering a resident's room. The nurse on my floor was very obese, disliked by everyone because of her foul attitude, and was notorious for caring for her residents in the dark. One night I was sitting in the lounge watching tv and she started off down the hall to go into a resident's room and begin his tube feed. A minute later I hear her screaming at the top of her lungs. Of course the other aides had vanished so I was the only one around to see what she was bellowing about. I thought to myself "OMG, maybe 'so and so' ripped out his tube feed [which he did frequently] and there's blood and gore everywhere." I walked into the room and the first thing I did was flip on the light to see what was going on. There she was sprawled out on the floor and unable to get up because she was so big. The resident just lie there in his bed saying "Wth is her problem? Can't you make her shut up?" Rofl, I nearly lost it. I was speechless. I was trying to act all serious about the situation but it was too comical. It turns out she ignored the part in report where it was said mats were ordered to be placed beside his bed in case he fell. So she walked into the room to do her nightly routine and tripped on the mat because she couldn't be bothered to flip on the light. I ended up having to call the supervisor and we had to use the same lift we used to transport residents to get her off of the floor and into a wheelchair. The supervisor was trying even harder than me to keep a straight face. Anyway, bad things happen when you don't flip on a light, lol.

Not a nurse (hopefully soon!) but thought I would weigh in on this with my limited understanding. My 9 year old is diabetic so I eat, sleep, and breathe insulin injections. I rarely hold his Lantus, even if his bg is very low. Lantus is a 24-hour insulin and is to be given at the same exact time every day. It has never caused his bg to drop even lower unless he has some sort of other problem going on. Take your pick - honeymoon phase, illness, etc. Novolog is an entirely different story. I make far more judgement calls where that is concerned. Illness, exercise, lack of activity, etc. can have a profound effect. It takes 3 hours to peak and 6 hours to wear off. All those things are taken into consideration when I give him insulin. Whenever his bg drops dangerously low it's because of Novolog combined with some other factor. In my personal experience, the only thing holding Lantus does is potentially cause bg to skyrocket later. It tends to make bg become very unstable when not given at the same time every day.

I made $13.30/hour per diem on the night shift.