A Comparison of Two Regions Used in Capillary Blood Glucose Test in Terms of Pain and Result Consistency

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The data were collected by the researcher in the diabetes outpatient clinic where there is a sink for handwashing and a suitable area and equipment for blood collection. The researcher interviewed the patients who applied to the diabetes outpatient clinic, informed them about the study and obtained their written consents. After obtaining their written consents, the information of the patients was recorded in the Patient Identification Form. Then, the patients were informed about the use of the Visual Analog Scale. First, venous blood samples of the patients were collected into a tube by the researcher, and then their capillary blood samples were taken. A randomization scheme was created via the website https://www.randomizer.org/ in order to prevent bias during the evaluation of the pain felt due to drawing of capillary blood. According to this randomization order, patients were randomly assigned to one of the two groups. For capillary blood glucose measurement, two regions, fingertip and palm were used in every patient. In the first group, capillary blood glucose samples were taken first from the fingertip and then from the palm, and in the second group the capillary blood sample was first obtained from the palm and then the fingertip, and blood glucose measurements were made with the glucometer. The patient washed his/her hands with warm water and soap and dried them with a paper towel. Prior to capillary blood collection, the patient washed his/her hands with warm water, kept his hand below the level of the heart, waved downwards and gently massaged his/her fingertips in order to obtain appropriate amount of blood. The dominant hands of the patients were used to collect capillary blood samples. In order not to affect the research results, the same glucometer device was used for all capillary glucose measurements and a new 28G sterile lancet was used in each application. Between capillary blood glucose measurements, an average of 5 minutes was waited for pain assessment with VAS. In order to ensure the objectivity of the study, the nurse, who was trained by the researcher on the use of VAS before the study, evaluated the patient's pain at the end of each capillary blood glucose measurement by using VAS.