It is crucial that patients and healthcare professionals receive the correct education to recognise, treat and more importantly to prevent further hypos occurring.

During Hypo Awareness Week the team’s main focus was encouraging people to think about the triggers of hypos. What caused it? What was different today?

Hypoglycaemia can be caused by one factor or a combination, such as inappropriate treatment dosage, exercise, alcohol intake or missing a meal. Examples of possible causes were shown on a display board in the outpatient department and posters were distributed on the wards for patients and staff to think about possible triggers.

By keeping a note of when hypos occur, patients may gain a greater understanding of how to best manage their diabetes. Copies of ‘My Hypo Journal’ were made available as an example of how to make a record of hypos to try and prevent future episodes.

Alongside this, a Hypoglycaemia Episode Sticker was created for patient’s medical notes. This helped aid accurate documentation, assist auditing, inform the multidisciplinary team and highlight any need for ward teaching. The multidisciplinary team also assisted in highlighting patient triggers, for example, the physio may make a note of any increased activity or the ward doctor could review medication. Pilot Hypoglycaemia Episode Stickers were given to two wards and audited with the view to later implement across the Trust.

They said: “By providing information, guidance and encouraging people to ask questions, together we can try to reduce the number of hypoglycaemia episodes.”