PURPOSE
To examine the effects on skin injury, pain, and anxiety when nurses and children simultaneous wash their hands before IV injections.
METHOD
A nonequivalent control group, non-synchronized design study was used with 61 children. For a month and a half, children in the experimental group(30) following hand-washing guidelines, washed their hands with nurses before IV insertion. Anxiety and pain were observed and recorded during IV insertion using the Anxiety Reaction Scale and FACES pain scale. After 48-72 hours on IV therapy with an arm-board, skin condition was checked by a research assistant according to guidelines for assessing skin injury developed by the researcher. t-test, chi-square-test, Pearson correlation, and Kendall's tau b were used to analyze data with the SPSS program.
RESULTS
Children who washed their hands with the nurse before IV insertion showed less pain (p =.021) and skin injury (p <.001) compared to the control group.
CONCLUSION
This finding suggests that simultaneous hand washing by nurse and child before IV injection has a strong effect on skin injury caused by arm-boards used to maintain IV therapy as well as on pain during IV insertion. This program demonstrates an effective intervention to prevent skin injuries in children on IV therapy.
