The Relationship Between Pain Intensity and Intramuscular Injection

The study was a single-group crossover clinical trial, where each participant acted as their own control. The study sample included 50 patients aged 25 to 55 who met the inclusion criteria of signing an informed consent form and requiring administration of a specific antibiotic via intramuscular injection, as prescribed by physicians.

Two intramuscular injections into the right and left Dorsal Gluteal Region (DRG) were recorded for each participant. One was administered by a nurse, according to the unit's routine, and took 5 seconds to complete. A day after, the same nurse gave the other injection in the opposite DGR, taking 40 seconds to administer. The five-second injections were considered the control group, while the 40 seconds injections were the intervention group. The order of interventions was randomized. The pain level was determined and recorded immediately after each injection.

The study was conducted between September 2019 to November 2019 in the emergency unit of an educational hospital in Istanbul. The data was collected using a Demographic Form, Facial Expressions Scale, and Visual Comparison Scale. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon test, and Spearman correlation analysis, with a significance level of p < 0.05.