Diabetes for Children in Middle School

Since diabetes requires 24 hours management, this article reviews some common challenges faced during the care for diabetic students at school. The article discusses six main components of diabetes care, challenges met and solutions. These elements include blood glucose monitoring, insulin therapy, nutrition management, exercise, hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia management, training school personnel. Regarding blood glucose monitoring, going to a centralized clinic to monitor levels of blood glucose may waste much of the student’s time out of class; therefore, diabetic students should be allowed to check their blood glucose in class. For insulin therapy; some middle school students have difficulties injecting themselves with insulin and even to those who can, supervision is required. The best solution is to employ trained individuals to assist such students. With nutrition management; many diabetic students partake in nutrition programs of school, it may be difficult for parents to get nutrition information to plan for the type of insulin to be administered. It is, therefore, crucial for schools to publish their menus online or in printing to help inform parents of the nutrition contents (Jameson, 2006). 

Another component is exercise. All diabetic students are required to participate in exercises just like their fellows; however, this may require extra monitoring of blood glucose and access to snacks. This challenge requires that personnel supervising such activities ensure students conduct regular blood glucose check during the events and provide them with a bite. Concerning hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia management, the problem is the challenge to anticipate what may cause extremely low or high levels of blood glucose. To solve this issue, caregivers should be trained on how to check the signs. Finally, training school personnel can be challenging and demanding because pediatric diabetes constantly undergoes evolution and technological changes. This problem requires that school nurses be given quality training for diabetes to ensure they cope with the changes. In conclusion, diabetes care for middle school students requires cooperation and collaboration between nurses, parents, students and school personnel (Jameson, 2006). 

Reference 

Jameson, P. (2006). Helping students with diabetes thrive in school. On the Cutting Edge, American Dietetic Association’s Diabetes Care and Education Practice Group Newsletter, 26-29. http://main.diabetes.org/dorg/PDFs/schools/thriveschool_jameson.pdf