Speaker A
Hi everyone, my name is Ola, and I'm the diabetes clinical educator. Hi, my name's Tanya, I'm the community diabetes clinical educator.
Learn to recognize and manage hypoglycemia with practical steps from Northumbria NHS diabetes educators.
Key Takeaways
- Recognize hypo symptoms early and check blood sugar promptly.
- Use fast-acting carbohydrates to treat hypoglycemia if the patient is conscious.
- Escalate care immediately if the patient is unconscious or unable to swallow.
- Follow up treatment with a carbohydrate snack to stabilize blood sugar.
- Ongoing monitoring and medical review of insulin therapy are essential.
What the video covers
- Hypoglycemia, or hypo, is defined as blood sugar below 4 mmol/L.
- Common symptoms include sweating, shakiness, hunger, headaches, palpitations, and tingling lips.
- If symptoms appear, check blood sugar immediately.
- Treat hypoglycemia by administering 15-20g of fast-acting carbohydrate if the patient is awake and can swallow.
- Examples of fast-acting carbs include Lift glucose juice, glucose chews, or glucose gels.
- If the patient cannot swallow or is unconscious, escalate care immediately following the hypo algorithm.
- Recheck blood sugar after 10-15 minutes; if above 4 mmol/L, provide a carbohydrate snack to maintain levels.
- Suitable snacks include biscuits with milk, toast, banana, or a normal meal if near mealtime.
- Monitor blood sugar continuously and escalate insulin regimen review to a medical professional if needed.
- The video is presented by diabetes clinical educators Ola and Tanya in honor of Hypo Awareness Week.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and presenters
- 00:12Definition of hypoglycemia
- 00:25Symptoms of hypoglycemia
- 00:46Importance of checking blood sugar
- 00:58Treatment using fast-acting carbohydrates
- 02:02Escalation if patient cannot swallow
- 02:08Follow-up care and carbohydrate snacks
- 02:34Ongoing monitoring and insulin review
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
In honor of hypo awareness week, we're going to discuss the management of hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia, aka hypo, is a blood sugar below 4 mmol per liter.
Speaker A
In regards to that, patients may display some signs and symptoms of suffering from a hypo. These may be anything from profusely sweating, being really shaky, complaining of being really hungry, having really bad headaches, heart pounding palpitations, or having tingly lips. The list is not
Speaker A
exhaustive, or they may just feel not right. If they complain of anything like that, or just state not right, you need to check the blood sugar straight away.
Speaker A
And if it comes up as anything below 4, then we need to treat it in a specific way.
Speaker A
To treat hypoglycemia, it's useful advice to follow the trust hypo algorithm on how to manage this. It will be required that you administer 15 to 20 g of fast-acting carbohydrate to the patient. This could be one Lift glucose
Speaker A
juice, five glucose chews, or two chews of glucose gels, depending on whatever you have available. However, this can only be used if the patient is awake and able to swallow safely. Should they not be able
Speaker A
to swallow safely, or they are unconscious, it is important that you escalate immediately and follow the rest of the hypo algorithm to manage this.
Speaker A
Once you've done the check after 10 to 15 minutes, and the blood sugar is above 4 mmol per liter, it's really important that you make sure that the patient has a carbohydrate snack afterwards to maintain the blood sugars above 4 mmol
Speaker A
per liter. This can be anything from a couple of plain biscuits and a glass of milk, a slice of toast, a banana, or if it's near mealtime, have their normal meal. And then just monitor the blood sugars going forward. And if they
Speaker A
need to review their insulin regime, then that needs to be escalated to a medical professional.
Topics:hypoglycemiahypodiabetesblood sugarfast-acting carbohydrateglucosehypo awareness weekdiabetes educationNorthumbria NHSinsulin management
