We Repeat: Teach To Remove The Needle Shield!

Last week I was teaching a patient how to self inject an injectable medication. As I was going through the steps, I told her twice of the importance of removing not only the outer cover of the needle, but also the needle shield. She gave me one of those looks like, “Why did you tell me this twice?” Then she said, “I know!”

I am always reminded that I can’t forget this step when teaching patients how to use pens. Yes, we’ve written about it before, but sometimes it takes repetition to get the point across, not only to our patients, but also to us, health care providers.

It happens too often that patients either weren’t taught or don’t remember to take off the needle shield. If so, they will not get their medication. It can and has been deadly.

Sometimes it’s the simple stuff that’s so important.

For lessons learned, see

https://www.diabetesincontrol.com/insulin-pen-delivery-failures/

https://www.diabetesincontrol.com/know-your-pen-needles/

 

Joy Pape, FNP-C, CDE
Medical Editor, Diabetes In Control

 

If you have a “Diabetes Disaster Averted” story, please let us know! If we feature your Disaster Averted in our Diabetes Clinical Mastery Series e-newsletter, you will receive a $25 gift card. Please click here to submit a short summary of the incident, what you feel you learned from handling the incident, and your name and title. If you prefer to remain anonymous, please let us know, but still give us your name and address (so we can send you the gift card).