Starting the person with diabetes on insulin in the outpatient setting: a teaching guide for physicians and nurses

When a physician decides that a diabetic patient requires insulin treatment, more teaching is necessary than when initiating most other medications. It has been found advantageous, in treating persons with diabetes mellitus who are not severely compromised metabolically, to introduce them in an outpatient setting to the administration of insulin. The objective of this article as a teaching guide is to enable the health-care provider to cover all essential points clearly and effectively in a minimal period of time and thereby allow the patient to confidently inject himself/herself properly, and to become a member of the team that is managing and controlling his/her disease. This paper deals only with the use of insulin in the diabetic patient. It is recognized that other aspects of patient care and patient education must be addressed concurrently in the total care of the patient with diabetes.