Nurses must have familiarity with blood glucose monitoring and the procedure for carrying out such testing. To support student understanding of this skill, we developed a glucose monitoring experiment for a one-semester nursing major-specific physiological chemistry laboratory course. This new exercise replaced the more traditional assays to investigate the chemical properties of carbohydrates. The experiment includes an exercise in which students use standard glucose solutions to assess the accuracy of a commercial blood glucose monitor, an exercise in which they screen a fasting patient sample to assess for the risk of diabetes mellitus, and an exercise in which they try to determine whether a patient consumed simple or complex carbohydrates. Students were still able to learn about important carbohydrate chemistry, but with activities more applicable to their major. We share this element of a curriculum redesign as an example of incorporating chemical education research and curriculum development as part of an undergraduate research program which may provide guidance to others who may want to engage in such projects in their own institutions.

Developing a glucose monitoring laboratory exercise for an experimental chemistry course for nursing majors

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