How Nurses Should Administer Drugs via the Intramuscular (IM) Route

How Nurses Should Administer Drugs via the Intramuscular (IM) Route
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How Nurses Should Administer Drugs via the Intramuscular (IM) Route
1.0 Introduction
Intramuscular (IM) drug administration facilitates rapid absorption of drugs from the vascular muscle tissue, where they are deposited into the general circulatory system. However, if not done properly, the procedure may result in pain, bleeding, and formation of abscess at injection site (Agac & Gunes, 2011). Therefore, it is important for nurses to understand how to use the skilled evidence-based injection approach and accurately identify the appropriate site to minimize potential risks of complications associated with wrong procedures (Shepherd, 2018). While good practices of IM injection techniques appear in massive literatures, there is a growing concern that nurses still perform outdated and ritualistic practices related to site identification, skin cleansing, and aspiration during IM drug administration. Upon identifying the site of injection, skilled nurses will pull the skin by about 3cm to displace the underlying tissue, and while holding on the skin, the injection can be given before allowing the skin to return to its usual position thus trapping the drug in the muscle. This procedure should not last more than 10 minutes for highly skilled practice nurses. This paper explains the best practice of administering drugs through intramuscular injection by providing the list of materials, steps, and important notes to consider.
2.0 List of Materials
* Needles.
* A syringe.
* Drug to be administered.
* Medicine administration prescription or chart.
* Tray/receiver to carry the medicine.
* Container for sharps.
3.0 Procedure/Steps
1 Make the patient aware about the procedure.
2 Screen the patient for allergic responses.
3 Ensure you have the correct prescription.
4 Wash and dry your hands.
5 Assemble needles and syringe, and withdraw the right amount of the prescription from the ampoule.
6 Disperse the air bubbles from the syringe before changing the needle.
7 Place the prefilled syringe in a tray and proceed to the patient while carrying the bin for sharps.
8 Confirm the identity of the patient.
9 Position the patient to expose the injection site as shown in Figure 1.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1 Common sites for IM drug administration (Shepherd, 2018)
10 Screen the si...