Utilidad de la administración de medicación por vía subcutánea por parte del profesional de enfermería

Abstract

The subcutaneous route is a drug administration technique, it consists of injecting the drugs into the adipose tissue, under the skin, since it contains few pain receptors, which facilitates the entry of drugs into the blood. This route is mainly used for the administration of drugs that have a prolonged effect. It is considered less invasive than the intramuscular and intravenous routes. Objective: To determine the usefulness of subcutaneous medication administration by nursing professionals through their knowledge and experiences. Methods: Qualitative study, with a descriptive scope and phenomenological design, developed with 21 nursing professionals from a basic hospital and a public health center in Ecuador, to whom a semi-structured interview was applied. The responses were analyzed through the content analysis technique. Results: The main use that occurs in the health center is for vaccines and in the hospital for insulin administration. The level of knowledge depends on the age and rotations where they previously worked. The experiences are related to the level of knowledge they have, that is, they had positive experiences the more knowledge they had about the subcutaneous route. Conclusions: The level of knowledge of the nursing professional is basic and the main use given to this route in the hospital is for the administration of insulin and anticoagulants, while in the health center, for vaccines.