Vaccinating in deltoid

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I am a new nurse, vaccinating children every now and then. Either in the upper thigh or deltoid muscle. The guideline in my country is we don't have to aspirate in those locations. But anyway, a few times when vaccinating in the deltoid muscle, there has come 1-2 drops of blood out, and a tiny bit of blood in to the syringe. Not much but it still freaks me out, although I try to play it cool and just press the injectionsite, and put a plaster, the bleeding has always stopped quite fast. Is this normal, is it something I need to worry about??? I always feel super stressed after this, although the children have seemed fine afterwards, except for the normal cry after a vaccine. The location has seemed right to me, but is there something I am doing wrong?!

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.

I don't know what country you are in, but in the US aspirating is not advised. You probably are disrupting a few capillaries at most. Think about the angle needed to cannulate a vein for IV insertion, 10-20 degrees. An IM injection is 90 degrees, so when inserted into the correct location, you are not going to inject directly into a vein. 

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Welcome to allnurses!

Doesn't appear you are doing anything wrong --scant blood droplets periodically occurs, pressure and bandaid application control it  been my experience.   For children over 1 year, use 5/8"–1" needle, 22–25 gauge for deltoid injection

Landmark review:

 

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Children's Hospital of Philadelphia:

Technically Speaking: Choosing the Proper Needle Length for Vaccination

Vaccine Update for Healthcare Providers

Hope these resources reassures your technique.  Great that you are doing all you can to get children properly immunized.

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