Study of insulin injection technique amongst the nursing staff

ABSTRACT

To assess the knowledge and technique of insulin injection amongst the nursing staff. A total of 272 nurses working in three different hospitals [one private and two public] of Lahore, Pakistan were assessed regarding timing with meals, knowledge of site of insulin injection, tissue of injection, and technique of injection. Observations were recorded in Proforma and results were analyzed. Out of these 272 nurses only 40 knew all the steps regarding the insulin injection technique. The fact that insulin should be injected 30 minutes before meal was known to 57.4% and 66.2% had the idea of injecting insulin in subcutaneous tissue. Sixty-four percent knew about injecting insulin in upper arm, 75% knew about upper thigh as site of injection and 89.7% of the nurses knew that this has to be given in the abdomen. Technique of pinching skin was right in 64% nurses, 56.6% knew that cleaning the skin with spirit is not required. While assessing the technique of injection 72.8% of the nurses gave it correctly at an angle of 900. Nurses an integral part of health care providing team are not themselves properly trained to administer insulin injection in a developing country like Pakistan. Therefore for better health care provision their training has to be improved generally in all the fields and especially in the field of diabetes mellitus. The authorities responsible for their training should realize these facts and take effective measures: