Discussion
cough, bruising, pain
COLD, COMPLICATIONS
Subcutaneous LMWH injections are an important part of drug administration. One of the basic responsibilities of nurses is to protect patients from preventable side effects by the use of correct techniques(Therefore, it is important that there is a need for research into an effective, easily applied technique because of uncertainties concerning which technique to use in order to control pain and increase satisfaction when giving subcutaneous LMWH injections, considering factors such as heavy pressure of work, rapid patient turnover, the large number of patients and the lack of time, especially for healthcare professionals working in surgical clinics. In this regard, it was seen in the results of this study that the medium intensity coughing technique used during subcutaneous LMWH injections significantly reduced patients’ pain severity in comparison with injections given by the standard technique. No studies were found in the literature examining the effect of this technique in the administration of subcutaneous LMWH injections, but it was seen that it had been considered in connection with the management of pain developing in connection with other invasive nursing procedures.In a study on the subject, it was concluded that the coughing technique was effective in reducing pain during peripheral intravenous catheterization, and was an equivalent technique to the method of complex distractionAs a result of this study, the conclusion was reached that reported satisfaction levels after subcutaneous LMWH injections performed with the technique of getting patients to cough were significantly higher than after injections administered by the standard technique. It is reported that patient satisfaction is one of the important indicators of the quality of nursing services, and is accepted as a desired result of health servicesIn a study in which the effect of mechano-analgesia and cold application on bruising, pain and patient satisfaction relating to subcutaneous heparin injection was investigated, it was concluded that the mean pain severity scores of female patients were significantly higher than those of male patients, but that the variable of gender did not affect the level of patient’satisfactionIt was found as a result of this study that the variable of patients’ body mass index did not significantly affect the mean scores of pain severity and satisfaction level after injection by either method. Examining studies in the literature, it was found that they concluded that the variable of body mass index had no effect on the pain severityNurses are often undecided as to what technique to use in order to manage this pain in patients and to increase satisfaction, and there is a need for an effective technique which is easy and simple to use. In this way, this study makes a contribution to the literature on non-pharmacological methods used to reduce the pain of subcutaneous LMWH injections and to increase satisfaction with the injection. An important contribution of the study to the literature and its originality is that it is the first study to assess the use of the coughing technique with subcutaneous LMWH injections.One of the most widespread complications arising in connection with the administration of subcutaneous LMWH injections is pain. Nurses are often undecided as to what technique to use to manage this pain in patients and to increase satisfaction, and there is a need for an effective technique that is easy and simple to use. In this way, this study contributes to the literature on non-pharmacological methods used to reduce the pain of subcutaneous LMWH injections and increase satisfaction with the injection. Furthermore, considering that it is simple and free to use on patients, this technique can provide great convenience in the clinical field for health professionals, particularly nurses, in terms of pain management via safe subcutaneous heparin injections.This study has some limitations. The most important limitations are that the results could not be generalized because the subcutaneous heparin injection was applied only to the patient profile in the general surgery clinic, only on the outer side of the upper arm as the application area, and with 0.6 mL as the application dose. For this reason, it is recommended that comparative studies be conducted by repeating the study on different injection sites, with different application doses, and with different patient profiles.