Diabetes Review Questionnaire

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helli

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Twice a year, I receive a text message from my GP requesting I book a diabetes review.
As I also have a review at the hospital based diabetes clinic, I usually just take the blood test and politely decline the appointment with the surgery based DSN who is focused on type 2 diabetes.
I have just received the text to book the blood test along with, for the first time a questionnaire. The questions seem to fit into four categories
- reasonable questions to ask - have I attended a "diabetes structured educational programme" in the last year? Have I had a retinal screening in the last year? Do I smoke? What is my height and weight? ...
- questions which seem to be indicative of immediate problems - Do I have any pain walking? Do I have swollen ankles? Am I experiencing shortness of breath or chest pains?
- questions which suggest the questionnaire has not been tested - what is my BG? (not what is my BG at certain times of the day or when last taken). How many units of alcohol do I drink on a typical day? That last one was a multiple choice and I could not chose zero.
- subjective questions which I am not sure if I can answer - what is your diet like? Multichoice options are average, poor, weight reducing or vegan. How is my mood? Options are Fine or Low - is that in response to answering this questionnaire.

Before I submit, I can click a button to calculate my score. Apparently my total score is 3.0. There is no explanation what this means.

Is this something that is being rolled out everywhere or just my clinic?
 
helli said:
Twice a year, I receive a text message from my GP requesting I book a diabetes review.
As I also have a review at the hospital based diabetes clinic, I usually just take the blood test and politely decline the appointment with the surgery based DSN who is focused on type 2 diabetes.
I have just received the text to book the blood test along with, for the first time a questionnaire. The questions seem to fit into four categories
- reasonable questions to ask - have I attended a "diabetes structured educational programme" in the last year? Have I had a retinal screening in the last year? Do I smoke? What is my height and weight? ...
- questions which seem to be indicative of immediate problems - Do I have any pain walking? Do I have swollen ankles? Am I experiencing shortness of breath or chest pains?
- questions which suggest the questionnaire has not been tested - what is my BG? (not what is my BG at certain times of the day or when last taken). How many units of alcohol do I drink on a typical day? That last one was a multiple choice and I could not chose zero.
- subjective questions which I am not sure if I can answer - what is your diet like? Multichoice options are average, poor, weight reducing or vegan. How is my mood? Options are Fine or Low - is that in response to answering this questionnaire.

Before I submit, I can click a button to calculate my score. Apparently my total score is 3.0. There is no explanation what this means.

Is this something that is being rolled out everywhere or just my clinic?
Click to expand...
Interesting, yesterday I booked my bloods for 27th, and my appointment in July, and no such questionaries.

Some of these things normally get asked in person. The score is interesting indeed.

My daughter got a (golddust) place at a dentist (it is private) the forms which are for all had the 'what is your career' and 'units of alcohol' which reminded me of the first application at the doctors, asking about her diet 'milk only' :D

Those diet and mood questions 🙄
 
Some of those questions but not all are what I roundly get asked at my review.
 
grovesy said:
Some of those questions but not all are what I roundly get asked at my review.
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Which makes me wonder why they are asking them in the questionnaire.
Would it be to give me time to think about the answers or for them to review beforehand?
 
Our surgery did something similar a few years ago, it only lasted 2 or 3 years. I took great delight in crossing out the YES/NO boxes (not even a N/A available!) so I could write a suitably flippant reply to "Are you, or are you planning to become pregnant?" In my late 60s/early 70s?
 
helli said:
Twice a year, I receive a text message from my GP requesting I book a diabetes review.
As I also have a review at the hospital based diabetes clinic, I usually just take the blood test and politely decline the appointment with the surgery based DSN who is focused on type 2 diabetes.
I have just received the text to book the blood test along with, for the first time a questionnaire. The questions seem to fit into four categories
- reasonable questions to ask - have I attended a "diabetes structured educational programme" in the last year? Have I had a retinal screening in the last year? Do I smoke? What is my height and weight? ...
- questions which seem to be indicative of immediate problems - Do I have any pain walking? Do I have swollen ankles? Am I experiencing shortness of breath or chest pains?
- questions which suggest the questionnaire has not been tested - what is my BG? (not what is my BG at certain times of the day or when last taken). How many units of alcohol do I drink on a typical day? That last one was a multiple choice and I could not chose zero.
- subjective questions which I am not sure if I can answer - what is your diet like? Multichoice options are average, poor, weight reducing or vegan. How is my mood? Options are Fine or Low - is that in response to answering this questionnaire.

Before I submit, I can click a button to calculate my score. Apparently my total score is 3.0. There is no explanation what this means.

Is this something that is being rolled out everywhere or just my clinic?
Click to expand...
My surgery has this in template form for the HCP who does the blood tests, weight and height, and foot check, to ask me. It really annoys me, because she asks me questions verbally, then writes down what answer she thinks best fits the box.
It also really annoys me, because the alcohol questions, if you answer more than 5 units a week (I answered 6), prompts further stupid questions about whether I ever have to have a drink first thing in a morning to stave off a hangover, and whether friends and family have ever spoken to me about my drinking! (I call them stupid, because if I'm drinking 6 units a week, they are extremely unlikely to apply, especially the one about 'do I drink more than 10 units at one sitting)
I challenged her on this, because when I look at my test results on line, I have to scroll past pages of all these individual questions, and I felt that if I was ever taken to hospital, someone might look at my notes and assume I was drunk when I was actually hypo. Her response was, Oh, she had to ask them, because the template says she has to. I was minded to take it further, but didn’t because I was afraid they’d think I was protesting too much, and I really did have a drink problem I was covering up! I’m thinking of just telling her I drink 4 units a week next year, which won’t trigger the additional questions, which for quite a few weeks of the year is correct. It’s well under the Government guidelines, in any case,
 
I've had this sort of questionnaire asked by my GP surgery's diabetic nurse a couple of years ago, and the only question she said she wouldn't bother asking me was
"Are you depressed?"
because she knew perfectly well that I wasn't (even though depression is usually compulsory)!
 
The preg question - never too old to stop trying for a baby - and just think of the money you or I could make if we did!
 
I haven't had a questionnaire sent to me, but the nurse fills one in on the computer I believe because I get some of those questions from her and she enters a response on the computer.

I always found the alcohol question challenging. I struggle to follow any sort of routine with my life and that applies to food and drink as well as exercise and sleep times and a whole host of other stuff. I can have no alcohol for a week or two and then have 13 or more units in a week which might still only be 2 units every night or 3-4 every other night, none of which is hugely excessive in my opinion. Thankfully, it is easier now as I have given it up altogether. I always wondered what she put on my records about this, when I tried to explain that it varied and by how much as I would struggle to summarise my alcohol intake within a multi choice scenario and depending upon what they enter, it could make me look like I have a drink problem.

I am supposed to have 6 monthly reviews and will be due one August/Sept, so will see what happens then.

I wonder if perhaps the questionnaire is sent out to those diabetic patients who don't routinely attend these reviews.

@helli Is your nurse at the surgery an actual DSN or just a practice nurse who has had a bit of extra training in diabetes care.... often referred to on the forum as a DN or Diabetes Nurse.
I have to say the DN at my GP practice has very good knowledge of diabetes and insulin and Libre. She knows that I am competent and confident in managing my diabetes and does not offer advice, but she can adjust my prescription.... After 5 years of trying with my consultant to get blood ketone strips on prescription, this nurse just added them to my repeat list and gave me a prescription for some there and then. She is also really keen to learn more about Type 1 and Libre and so I don't see it as a waste of my time or hers to have the review and since my appointments with the consultant are now telephone appointments which are becoming further and further apart.... usually at least 12 months, this sort of review is useful for keeping track of things and if I have any issues, I could ask her for a referral to podiatry or a dietician etc and she also reminds me that I can contact the clinic if I need any specific help with issues. I think the consultants within our catchment area do their best to train the practice nurses to a reasonably good standard and also foster an open door/phone line policy for them to reach out and seek support from the clinic if the nurses have a complex or unusual case. In my own case, the previous DN at the surgery (who was also great) was having regular case conferences with the consultant in the weeks following my diagnosis because she suspected I was not a straight forward Type 2 and that lead to me being started on insulin and getting a prompt referral to the clinic within 8 weeks of initial diagnosis. I do therefore feel that these nurses can have a useful role to play even with Type 1s if they have had good training and support from the clinic staff.
 
rebrascora said:
@helli Is your nurse at the surgery an actual DSN or just a practice nurse who has had a bit of extra training in diabetes care.... often referred to on the forum as a DN or Diabetes Nurse.
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I suspect it is the latter - a practice nurse with a little extra training.
When I last had an appointment with her, she asked me how much Lantus I took a day even though I have a pump and asked me if I have ever had a hypo ... after more than 15 years.
 
silentsquirrel said:
"Are you, or are you planning to become pregnant?" In my late 60s/early 70s?
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Have belief in yourself, the oldest recorded age of pregnancy is 74 so there’s no reason to believe you can’t!
 
Maybe those were questions on her computer and she just asked them because she was following a proforma or may be like my nurse she benefitted from that appointment by learning from you although I appreciate that it is not your job to train your DN, but I do think that they can learn from us. For instance my nurse now knows about compression lows with Libre because I explained about them a year ago when she didn't know but then last Feb when I was experiencing nocturnal hypos she asked if I was aware that sleeping on the Libre sensor can cause a false low reading.... so she clearly didn't remember that she had learned that from me, but she did learn it.
 
rebrascora said:
For instance my nurse now knows about compression lows with Libre because I explained about them a year ago when she didn't know but then last Feb when I was experiencing nocturnal hypos she asked if I was aware that sleeping on the Libre sensor can cause a false low reading.... so she clearly didn't remember that she had learned that from me, but she did learn it.
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Good work that she learnt it and adopted it into practice though!
 
Lucyr said:
Good work that she learnt it and adopted it into practice though!
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Yes, absolutely! There will be a good few actual DSNs at clinics around the country who don't know about compression lows, so I really think the review with the DN at the surgery can be a useful exchange on both sides. I think sometimes we forget that here on the forum, we are much more well informed than the average person with diabetes, because of our shared experiences and if we can pass some of that on through various means, be it the time we spend on this forum or through our interaction with medical professionals, that it can benefit more people.
 
Leadinglights said:
My daughter had a lady come to her antenatal clinic who was pregnant at 60 and had been overseas for IVF. She seemed to be very nervous about everything.
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Good point then, so it’s worth having the question on the form regardless of age. If it turns out that age 60+ diabetics are planning a pregnancy it would be very important to pick that up and guide them through it.
 
rebrascora said:
I do think that they can learn from us.
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Fair enough but I would like to learn something from them, too. The primary purpose of the appointment should be for me to get something out of it in addition to the results of my blood test which I can get from the NHS app beforehand.
 
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Lucyr said:
Good point then, so it’s worth having the question on the form regardless of age. If it turns out that age 60+ diabetics are planning a pregnancy it would be very important to pick that up and guide them through it.
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Strange, that is one question which was not on my questionnaire. They have no interest in my reproduction. I'll try not to take that too personally 🙄
 
I wonder if I would get the pregnancy question should they send me one. I don't think I've had one but communications from the GP tend to be by text and I often don't see them for days by which time they have timed out.
 
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