Home Blood Glucose Monitoring

Home Blood Glucose Monitoring is a videocassette instructional program designed to assist diabetic persons in learning to measure blood glucose levels at home. The program could also be used for the instruction of nursing students or health care agency personnel . The program is presented in three sections. First, instruction is presented in performing a finger puncture and obtaining a drop of blood for analysis. The Auto-Let, an Owen Mumford Ltd. product, is used to demonstrate this procedure. The diabetic person is then shown how to measure blood glucose visually by means of a Chemstrip bG test strip. Areas of potential error in performing this test are presented and discussed. The final portion of the program demonstrates the measurement of blood glucose via a battery powered meter. The Accu-Chek Blood Glucose Monitor and Chemstrip bG test strips, Bio-Dynamics Company products, are used in this demonstration. Recording of the blood glucose level and other data relevant to diabetic control is stressed. There is a natural break in the program between the instruction in visual and metered testing methods. Persons with diabetes who will not be using a meter can view the program and stop the videocassette at the completion of that segment. The program is designed primarily for use with adults with diabetes, but could also be useful for adolescents. The reading level of the program has been established at 6.8, therefore the younger person\u27s reading level should be known or estimated before use with this age -group. The program is not intended to supplant the individualized form of instruction necessary for learning how to manage diabetes successfully. Rather, it should be used in conjunction with small group and one-to-one forms of instruction. Because of its videocassette format, the program could be utilized in patient\u27s rooms or be broadcast on hospital closed circuit television