To investigate the effect of Buzzy^® and ShotBlocker^® on reducing pain induced by intramuscular penicillin injections in children.

This was a randomized controlled study. A total of 150 Turkish children aged 7~12 years who presented to our pediatric emergency clinic and met the inclusion criteria were recruited. The children were randomly assigned to each group (control=50, Buzzy^®=50, ShotBlocker^®=50). Data were collected using an information form, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, Visual Analog Scale, and Faces Pain Scale-Revised.

The children in the control group had significantly higher pain scores during the penicillin injection than the children in the ShotBlocker^® and Buzzy^® groups. The children in the Buzzy^® group had significantly less pain than the children in both the ShotBlocker^® and control groups (p<.001).

Buzzy^® was more effective compared with ShotBlocker^® in this study.

The purpose of this study was to compare the feeling state guided imagery(FSGI) and end state guided imagery(ESGI) on stress and performance of an intramuscular injection of nursing students.

The design was a time series with a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest study. Data was collected from the 23 rd to the 25th of Nov. 2004. The subjects of this study were 40 female sophomores (21 for the ESGI, 19 for the FSGI). The instruments used in this study were the Visual Analogue Scale for Stress and the Nursing Skill Performance Check-list on Intramuscular Injection developed by the researchers(10 items). Guided imagery was provided through audiotapes for 8 minutes. A pretest was given before applying the guided imagery, posttest 1 was performed after the intervention, posttest 2 was performed before the intramuscular injection and then evaluation of the performance of the intramuscular injection was done. Data was analyzed using t-test, and Repeated Measures ANOVA.

The level of stress for those who received the ESGI and FEGI was not significant and the level of the nursing skill performance for those who received the ESGI was significantly higher than that of students who received the FEGI.

The use of ESGI has an effect on learning psychomotor nursing skills and further research is needed on stress.

This study was conducted to assess optimal needle length for gluteal intramuscular injections (IM) via simple skinfold thickness (SFT).

For this study, 190 healthy adults were recruited and grouped into eight groups according to gender and body mass index (BMI) (kg/m²). The Korean Society for the Study of Obesity criteria defines a BMI under 20 as underweight, 20.1-22.9 as normal, 23-24.9 as overweight and over 25 as obese. For each participant, the SFT of dorsoguteal (DG) and ventrogluteal (VG) sites were measured using a caliper. Subcutaneous tissue thickness was acquired through ultrasonic images.

For men in the overweight and obese groups at the DG site, for the obese group at the VG site, and for women in the normal weight, overweight and obese groups at both sites, the mean subcutaneous tissue thickness exceeded 1.84 cm, the minimal length for a 1 inch needle used for IM. At the DG site, optimal intramuscular needle length (OINL) was 1.4 times in women and 1.0 times in men compared to SFT. At the VG site, OINL was 1.3 times in women and 0.9 times in men compared to SFT.

The results of this study suggest that SFT is a reliable index to determine optimal needle length with minimal effort prior to IM.