Nurse Practitioner-led Project to Achieve Euglycemia in Cardiac Surgery Patients

Hyperglycemia is an independent predictor of mortality for cardiac surgery patients with or without diabetes; thus, a team approach for glycemic control is needed. This article describes an effective nurse practitioner-led quality improvement project to reduce postoperative hyperglycemia for cardiac surgery patients without an increased risk of hypoglycemia. A comparative analysis was performed between existing clinical processes for managing postoperative patients and the nurse practitioner intervention for insulin titration and nutrition management. Glycemic improvement from the preintervention group to the postintervention group was statistically significant (P < .001) and without increased hypoglycemia.