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Nurses Drug Handbook by Nursing Spectrum and Nurse Week

Features
Drug Handbook Home
Safe Drug Administration
Identifying Drugs
Commonly Used Drugs
Approvals and Updates
Federal Guidelines
Patient Teaching
Reporting Incidents
About the Author
Table of Contents
  • Foreword
  • Preface and User’s Guide
  • Drugs A-Z
  • Safe Drug Administration
  • Photo Gallery of Common Tablets & Capsules
  • Drug Classes
  • Vitamins and Minerals
  • Herbs and Supplements
  • Appendices

Drug Handbook Home > Safe Drug Administration > Identifying Injection Sites


You can administer an I.M. injection into the muscles shown below. In these illustrations, specific injection sites are shaded.

Deltoid site
  • Locate the lower edge of the acromial process.
  • Insert the needle 1" to 2" below the acromial process at a 90-degree angle.
 
Dorsogluteal site
  • Draw an imaginary line from the posterior superior iliac spine to the greater trochanter.
  • Insert the needle at a 90-degree angle above and outside the drawn line.
  • You can administer a Z-track injection through this site. After drawing up the drug, change the needle, displace the skin lateral to the injection site, withdraw the needle, and then release the skin.
 
Ventrogluteal site
  • With the palm of your hand, locate the greater trochanter of the femur.
  • SSpread your index and middle fingers posteriorly from the anterior superior iliac spine to the furthest area possible. This is the correct injection site.
  • Remove your fingers and insert the needle at a 90-degree angle.
 
Vastus lateralis and rectus femoris sites
  • Find the lateral quadriceps muscle for the vastus lateralis, or the anterior thigh for the rectus femoris.
  • Insert the needle at a 90-degree angle into the middle third of the muscle, parallel to the skin surface.
S.C. injections

S.C. drugs can be injected into the fat pads on the abdomen, buttocks, upper back, and lateral upper arms and thighs (shaded in the illustrations below). If your patient requires frequent S.C. injections, make sure to rotate injection sites.

  • Gently gather and elevate or spread S.C. tissue.
  • IInsert the needle at a 45- or 90-degree angle, depending on the drug or the amount of S.C. tissue at the site.

 

 

 



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