Short acting vs regular insulin

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I'm one of those nurses who always gets confused between short acting and regular acting insulin. I'm familiar with long acting as I work 3rd shift and we give it quite a bit at night. Despite the confusion; in nursing school, we were always told regardless of the type of insulin we were giving (short acting or regular) that to make sure to give it when we could see a tray in front of the patient if the patient could eat. This has always been my practice, as well at the bedside. However, I was made fun of by my preceptor for wanting to wait until a patient's tray arrived to give them regular sliding scale. I explained that this was one of the very first things we were taught in nursing school and that I don't feel comfortable giving insulin without food in front of them in case there is some delay with their tray. This is a nurse who is very experienced, so it made me second guess myself. Am I wrong?

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Specializes in ER.

If you are covering for a sugar that's already high... you can give it immediately. If you are giving it because they are eating...you need the food in front of them.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

That is the safe practice. If you give the insulin, and the patient gets whisked away to MRI, dialysis or some other procedure before they eat, bad things can happen. I think sometimes insulin orders are written "with food".

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Specializes in school nurse.

People still do sliding scale? Not correction factors?

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