Secondary care providers asked for input into review of enteral feeding guidelines

By Editor
22nd November 2021
Guidelines, Hypoglycaemia

Healthcare professionals are being asked to provide information to help shape a review of the guideline, ‘Glycaemic management during enteral feeding’.

Members of the Joint British Diabetes Society Inpatient Care Group (JBDS) are asking those in secondary care to share data as part of the audit to establish:

  • The prevalence of the use of enteral feeding
  • How diabetes teams manage glucose control for people with diabetes during enteral feeding
  • What level of glucose control is being achieved.

Along with the available evidence to guide clinical practice in this area, the JBDS is hoping that the national survey will strengthen and clarify its current guideline and recommendations.

There are two data collection forms to be completed:

Click here for Form 1 – Information on the HCP’s unit and general approach to managing enteral feeding.

Click here for Form 2 – For case specific data to establish the variety of strategies used for the management of diabetes or hyperglycaemia during enteral feeding. The JBDS is looking for five cases ideally, using data from when the patient is established on a stable feed regimen, not while on a build-up regimen.

Andrea Lake, a diabetes specialist nurse and Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow, is leading the project for the JBDS, and she is hoping that the survey results will provide invaluable information on what current national practice is when providing glycaemic support for patient with diabetes or hyperglycaemia, regardless of reason for admission, during enteral feeding.

She said: “Contributions to this survey are vital. Anyone who has supported patients with their glycaemic control during enteral feeding will know it can be problematic. There is some evidence available for different strategies, however we do not know how, or even if, any of these are used in clinical practice.

“We hope to combine the evidence available, with the expert experience of secondary care teams around the country, to update our enteral feeding guideline to refine and strengthen the recommendations made. The guideline will also be expanded to include all patients with diabetes or feed-related hyperglycaemia, not just those who have experienced a stroke.”

Forms should be returned by secure email (nhs.net to nhs.net) to danielflanagan@nhs.net by 14th January 2022.

The JBDS is hoping to publish the results of the survey and will acknowledge all those who contribute to the data collection in the publication.

For queries about the survey contact Andrea Lake on a.lake@uea.ac.uk.

The survey and subsequent review of the guideline is being carried out by Andrea Lake, Professor Ketan Dhatariya, Dr Daniel Flanagan, Dr Aled Roberts and Mark Green on behalf of the JBDS.

Click here for Form 1 

Click here for Form 2

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