Insulin Pump Site Change - UPDATED!

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I don't know how to edit or delete my original post but I realize it came off sounding really insensitive. To clarify, we have a family insisting that we reinsert an infusion set if it comes out during school even though they have been told repeatedly that we will not do that and want syringes and insulin as a backup. One of our nurses feels like she is now being harassed by this family and the parents want to see in writing where it says that we cannot re-insert an infusion set. So I was just wondering if any other districts do allow their school nurses to reinsert an infusion set. I have found the most current guidelines in my state that were written with input from our state board of education, state board of nursing, American Diabetes Association and our state department of health stating that a parent will be called to re-insert an infusion set if it becomes non functional and the student is unable to re-insert it themselves.

Our Medical Management Plans (created by the children's hospital, not us), requires us to keep syringes and vial as a backup or for BG's over 350. Maybe yours has a sentence like that that you can show the parent.

Ours says we may but it isn't required. So nobody does. I don't feel comfortable doing it as I am not trained on every pump but I am lucky and my T1 can do it himself as an independent.

Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I worked in a public school district and yes, if an infusion set needed to be reinserted during the day, we would do so. Most of our students with pumps were capable of reinserting themselves, but we would have them come to the office to be observed. I can specifically recall reinserting one set for a student who was too afraid to do it himself. It is not a difficult process, and I would rather resume the student's normal infusion than try to compensate with injections of insulin.

While there may be some parents who would prefer to come handle reinsertions, I don't understand how they can be compelled to provide what is essentially a normal and predictable (albeit infrequent) aspect of their child's diabetes care during the school day.

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