Subcutaneous (SubQ) Medication Administration: Introduction (Nursing)

00:04 Hey, guys, welcome to the skills, Subcutaneous Medication Administration, otherwise known as SubQ which is commonly called.

00:12 Now, let's take a look at the equipment we're gonna need, you of course you're gonna need your medication.

00:17 This is commonly going to be in the form of maybe heparin for example, that's a blood thinner or insulin for a patient that's diabetic.

00:25 That's really common subcutaneous administered medications.

00:29 Also next, you're going to need a syringe, so just note, this is going to matter depending on the medication you give.

00:36 So, you need to make sure that syringe is an appropriate.

00:39 Now, what I mean by that, if its insulin, we have a special syringe that we use for units, that's marked in units that we use for insulin.

00:49 So, just make sure, you check this before you go administer.

00:52 And, of course, we're gonna need our needle for injection.

00:55 Now, this is going to vary depending on the device you use.

00:59 The gauge, meaning the diameter of the needle is going to range anywhere from about like 28 to about 31 gauge.

01:07 So I know this is quite of a range but again it just depends if it's insulin you're giving or what kind of medication you're gonna be administering.

01:15 Take a look at the length here, this one's pretty short, half inches is pretty long but 5/8 is also very common in needle length.

01:24 We're only going in to the adipose tissue, the subcutaneous tissue, so the needle could be much shorter.

01:30 Now a tip, just remember, we're talking about gauges here and the higher the number, the higher the gauge, the smaller the diameter of the needle.

01:40 And again, as you see here, it's a pretty high number for the gauge, so the pretty small diameter for this injection.

01:47 Of course, we're also gonna need our antiseptic pads for cleaning, you may need a gauze pad if the patient bleeds a bit, just the kind of compress that area.

01:57 Now, let's take a look at subcutaneous injection sites.

02:00 This is an important piece, so if you take a look at this image here, you see all of these green highlighted areas.

02:06 Now, some of these as you can notice aren't probably the most preferred.

02:11 For example, you see on the back side, the posterior of the patient of this image.

02:15 We really don't inject here that much but the most common subcutaneous injection sites you're gonna use is the back of the arm and the image may be a little confusing here but make sure you know you're going to go on to the subcutaneous, the soft part of the back of the arm for subcutaneous injection.

02:35 Now, what we're gonna give here more than likely is going to be an insulin injection if the patient prefers.

02:42 Also, a very common and a safe injection site is you see here is the abdomen.

02:48 This is safe because if the patient gets a blood thinner for example, we're going to give it to the abdomen.

02:54 Also, the insulin, this is a great place to put insulin as well is in the abdomen, in the subcutaneous tissue.

03:01 One key note about administration of a subcutaneous medicine, that's a blood thinner.

03:07 So, if we can avoid it, we really don't wanna give a blood thinner in the back of the patient's arm because if they're on bed, they may rub here and this may cause bleeding or bruising at this side.

03:19 Don't forget to verify your medication use in the seven rights of medication administration.

03:25 And next we're gonna take a look at drawing up the medication from the vial.