It's on the TV. It's in your emails...seems it is everywhere! It's the latest news about the COVID-19 virus and it has everyone thinking. While the virus is not a good thing, it is good that we are thinking again about being prepared. I believe that as DCES, we should also be thinking about how COVID-19 will fit into our practices and into what we teach our patients.
I have a good friend who wrote an article that said in regards to preparing to care for health conditions during emergency times, we are either complacent or hysterical. He does not embrace either feeling. Rather, he says that we need to be mindfully aware that we live in a volatile world where we need to be proactive and not reactive and keep in a standby state. That means that we should always be ready to act if needed.
So what does that mean for DCES? First, we need to always teach our patients about sick day management and keep that topic in our top ten list of things to teach all of the time. I work in the inpatient area and one of the saddest things I hear from patients every day is that they do not have a sick day plan. They say that they never really thought about having one prior to this hospitalization.
Second, we need to teach our patients to keep an emergency kit for not only treating the maybe usual hypoglycemia, but also to keep it ready in case they have to shelter in place or evacuate their homes. Teach your patients to examine their kit at least twice a year to check that nothing in the kit is expired. A good time to check the kit is spring and fall so as to be ready for any upcoming severe weather events. It's also a goo time to check those batteries in the smoke detectors in your homes. A great website that will help you to prepare in small steps is called Do1Thing-Emergency Preparedness https://do1thing.com You can sign up for free and receive free monthly reminders which will prompt you to Do 1 thing each month and be prepared!
Third, we need to review infection control practices with our patients and with our colleagues and look at our processes within our own practices. Diabetes and infections are not the ingredients you want in your recipe for best health. I was trained as a nurse a long time ago and I still remember our nursing lecture on how to properly wash our hands. Our current fashion scene promotes long nails and our work dress codes no longer restrict us to keeping our hair off our collars. this may make some of our infection control a little more challenging. I still make a point to take off my shoes as soon as I enter my house as i think about where my shoes have been that day.
I tell my patients that diabetes is a "thinking disease". You have to begin to think before you do anything in order to reduce your risk and to stay healthy. So the advice to everyone is to think and to implement a plan. Preparing is not only a part of self-managing diabetes or other chronic diseases, but should also be a part of our everyday life.