Hi Daniel,
Our Consultant Paed says it would be dangerous to have
a hard and fast protocol. It depends on the size of
the child, size of digits and ease of handling the
child. He was horrified to hear of ANYONE in this day
and age doing toes. The reason only the sides of the
heel are used is because they are not weight bearing
and less prone to damage, ulceration or even gangrene.
Toes should never be used except in severe burns cases
where there is simply no other site available.
Earlobes may be used if desperate. Hope this answers
the question.
Jan
--- Daniel Smith
<[log in to unmask]> wrote: >
Does any one have any evidence/protocol for when
> glucose sampling on
> children should change from the heel pricking to
> finger pricking? We were
> asked this by a Children's Diabetic Nurse who heard
> of an incident of a
> finger pricking device used incorrectly on a heel.
> The nurse wanted to know
> if we had any guidelines about changing over. We
> have have protocols for
> both procedures but not when people should switch.
> After discussions with
> various children's nurses, we found no trust policy
> for changing over. It
> seems that the time of change over is a judgement
> call based roughly on
> weight/size. It also seems that sampling goes from
> the heel to the big toe
> because the fingers are still too small.
>
> Any pointers to where to look would be helpful.
>
> Thanks
>
> Danny
> Frenchay Hospital
> North Bristol NHS Trust
>
=====
<P>Mrs. Jan Still,</P>
<P>POCT Manager,</P>
<P>Watford General Hospital,</P>
<P>Watford, Herts.</P>
<P>WD18 0HB Tel - 01923-217998.</P>
<P>The views expressed in this document are entirely personal and do not reflect the official policy of West Herts NHS Hospitals Trust.</P>
<P> </P>
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