Insulin and Potassium Relationship

Have you ever wondered why you need to watch the potassium level when you give insulin? 

 

Or how glucose affects the potassium level? 

 

In this video, I’m going to walk through the key things you need to know about insulin, potassium and glucose for your fluids and electrolytes exam in nursing school. 

 

 

1. Potassium likes to hang out inside of the cell in the intracellular fluid (ICF)

 

2. When the blood glucose level is elevated, potassium moves outside of the cell into the extracellular fluid (ECF), causing the potassium level to increase.

 

3. Insulin forces potassium back into the cell, causing the potassium level to decrease. 

 

 

Serious complications can occur if the potassium level is too high or too low. So any time you’re giving insulin or treating a patient with elevated glucose levels, you must watch their potassium level carefully.

 

Come back to this video any time you need a quick refresher on insulin and potassium shifts in the body. 

In this video we are going to talk about the relationship between insulin and potassium, and which one shifts where and when. I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to know about it for nursing school. Let’s do it! 

 

Hello there friend, Christina here with nursingsos.com helping you to raise your grades and have more free time in nursing school (yes- it’s totally possible). So if you’re like me, you’re struggling with fluids and electrolytes in nursing school, and specifically, I had a difficult time with this concept of insulin and potassium and glucose and what happens to the potassium level when you give insulin, and if there’s too much glucose, will the potassium level increase or decrease. 

 

So we’re going to put an end to your confusion right now. I’m going to break this all down super simple for you. 

 

So the first thing you need to understand is that there are 2 different places that fluids and electrolytes can be, and that is inside of the cell (or the intracellular fluid, or ICF), or outside of the cell (called the extracellular fluid or the ECF). 

 

Normally, potassium hangs out inside of the cell. I like to think of potassium as a home body, it likes to hang out and stay all nice and cozy inside of the cell. So potassium hangs out in the ICF or the intracellular fluid. But when there’s so much glucose outside the cell, in the extracellular fluid or ECF, potassium get curious, it wants to join in on that party that all of that glucose is having. So potassium moves outside of the cell to see what all the fuss is about. 

 

So let’s say you have a patient with hyperglycemia, meaning their blood sugar level is high, what do you think is going to happen with the potassium level? Will it increase or decrease? 

 

Don’t worry, I’ll just wait here while you think about it…

 

The potassium level will increase because potassium will have moved outside of the cell, which raises the potassium level. The potassium isn’t hiding away inside the cell anymore, it’s moved outside of the cell to go to the party that all that glucose was throwing. 

 

Now, when the party gets a little too out of control, there’s too much glucose around and they’re getting a little too rowdy, the police need to get involved. And the police is insulin. 

 

So insulin comes and moves glucose into the cells where it belongs. And potassium, like we said before, potassium is a really big homebody, it doesn’t like to shake things up too much or cause a ruckus, it just came out of it’s cell to see what was going on when glucose was having that big party. But now that the insulin police are here, it’s going to go back home so it doesn’t get into any trouble. So it’s going to move back into it’s cell. 

 

So what is going to happen with the potassium level when insulin arrives? 

 

No rush, I’ll pause while you think about it…

 

If you said the potassium level is going to drop when insulin arrives, you are 100% correct my friend. 

 

When insulin shows up, potassium moves back into the cell and out of the ECF, causing the potassium level to drop. 

 

Now, why is this so important? Well, if you have a patient with hyperglycemia, like during diabetes or DKA, and you give them insulin, you need to be very careful with that potassium level. You need to monitor it as they’re receiving insulin treatment because you don’t want that potassium level to drop too low, that can be very, very dangerous. So you need to monitor their potassium level closely when you’re giving insulin therapy, along with monitoring their glucose closely as well. 

 

And make sure to like, share and subscribe, and go become the nurse that God created only you to be. I’ll catch you in the next video.