New standards for injections?

Hairstylingnurse · Oct 23, 2004

At work we are in the middle of a hellish flu shot season. (Thankfully I'm not scheduled to do the clinics... ) One of the nurses was saying that she recently read that the latest studies show that it's not necessary to clean the site with alcohol prior to injection AND that it's not necessary to withdraw.
Has anyone else heard or read about this? Do you know where I can find that info?
Thanks

:balloons: I haven't heard this yet but it sounds good to me. I'm a big believer that less is more. Ofcourse that extra few seconds will proably be replaced with more paperwork(hee-hee)

RN92 · Oct 23, 2004

A little off the subject, but....isnt it true that alcohol prep only works if you allow at least 30sec for it to dry.? I heard this a long time ago. Who waits 30sec anymore?

KRVRN, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2004

I think povidone-iodine is 30 sec contact time. Alcohol wipes are good for mechanically removing bacteria and dirt. Sort of like soap is good for cleaning bacteria off the skin but doesn't necessarily kill it.

I was told from a few nursing school instructors that alcohol wasn't necessarily needed before injections unless the skin was visibly dirty, though. I think not using alcohol wipes had been incorporated into diabetic teaching for home injections, but they were still required in the hospital setting.

Haven't heard anything regarding it's not necessary to withdraw.

Jo Dirt · Oct 23, 2004

You're supposed to let the alcohol dry so the injection will not be as painful. I've used alcohol swabs before injections for so long it would not feel right to give an injection without it. I had a hard enough time getting used to the insulin not being in the fridge.

All_Smiles_RN · Oct 23, 2004

I just learned about injections last week. My school taught us to use the alcohol wipes. I would hope that the school is teaching the most current standard.

...Jennifer...

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Oct 23, 2004

I like to use the alcohol wipe to desensitize the skin a bit before I jab it. If you use a good amount of pressure to create friction on the skin, it really decreases the amount of pain a patient experiences. I've put 18g IVs into five year olds without so much as a whimper from them and my son prefers to have Mommy draw his bloodwork over anyone else. So for that reason, if for no other, my alcohol wipes will stay in use!

lifeisbeautiful · Oct 24, 2004

I was told that the use of alcohol prior to an injection was basically a personal preference. I was also told that if you are handling the wipe with your bare hands, then wiping the area, you really aren't doing much good because by handling the wipe without gloves, you've just contaminated the wipe.

P_RN, ADN, RN · Oct 24, 2004

Twenty five years ago we taught diabetics they didn't need to use ETOH. I like it for the dirt- getting- off- thing, not necessarily sterilizing. As far as ETOH making it less painfful, I've never heard that. But somethng cold on their arm smight distract them enough...hmmmmm.

I hit my first blood vessel giving a shot about a year before I retired...98 or 99. Scared the crud outta me.

I am really surprised that there are so many different interpretations of this procedure.

laurasc · Oct 24, 2004

Personally, I'm not comfortable not using the alcohol swab prior...just a habit I guess.

But I still wonder about the withdrawing part. I give a lot of vaccines that the patient has to pay for, you can't just toss it and get another one. I've gotten blood a few times and every time but one I started over. The one time was because it was a very expensive vaccine and the patient could not afford to buy another, so I pushed the needle in a little further and injected. When I told one of my co-workers, she said that she never withdraws anymore because of that study.

With some serums you can't tell anyway. B12 is very red and Fe is very black.