Polish Journal of Public Health

Review Article, Pol J Public Health 2018;128(3): 132-134

Alina Dzirba, Mariusz Goniewicz, Patrycja Misztal-Okońska

Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Poland

DOI: 10.2478/pjph-2018-0026

© 2018 Medical University of Lublin. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonComercial-No Derivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

Abstract

Injection is the delivery of medication into the tissues. It is the administration of medication by means of a needle (cannula) into the body tissues, cavities or blood vessels. An injection is one of aseptic procedures, i.e. those that require the use of sterile equipment, sterile medication, and treatment in compliance with the principles of asepsis. Failure to observe these rules as well as those that have to be followed in connection with the delivery of medication regardless of the route of administration may result in many complications. The administration of medications by paramedics is one of their competencies defined in the Regulation of Health Minister of 20 April 2016 on the medical emergency treatment and health services other than medical emergency treat­ment that can be provided by a paramedic. A paramedic can himself administer 47 drugs specified in the foregoing Regulation, and he can also administer other drugs as ordered by a doctor. The article describes the principles of safe intramuscular injection as one of the methods of administering medication in emergency medicine.

Keywords: intramuscular injection, technique of selecting the puncture site, injection, emergency medicine, nursing, place of injection.