Nursing Teaching on How to Self-administer Heparin Shot

 Nurse educated the patient and caregiver on how to self-administer heparin shot as follows:
  1. Perform hand hygiene by washing hands with soap and water before administering the shot, dry the hands, and don the gloves.
  2. Heparin for self-administration comes in pre-filled syringes. Gather your pre-filled syringe and an alcohol wipe.
  3. Heparin shots are administered via a fine needle, by deep subcutaneous injection into the fat layer under the skin. Choosing body sites with rich fat layer is essential for proper administration of the shot.
  4. Usually it is administered into the belly or the thigh or the hip, as these body sites have rich fat availability. Also, you can choose to change the sites every time the shot is administered, to prevent any possibility for excessive damage at one site.
  5. While administering into the belly fat, make sure you pick a site on the abdomen that is at least 2 inches away from the umbilicus. Cleanse the skin site chosen with an alcohol swab.
  6. Slightly pinch a fold of skin between your thumb and the index finger of your non-dominant hand. Make sure you maintain the hold on the skin fold until the administration of heparin shot is complete.
  7. Introduce the needle by holding the syringe at 90-degree angle to the skin surface. Quickly and gently push the needle in into the pinched-up skin fold.
  8. Once the needle is deep enough, push the plunger of the syringe all the way down, to expel the heparin dose into the fatty layer at the chosen skin site.
  9. Once the entire dose is expelled, pull the needle out at the same angle it was introduced in and release the skin fold.
  10. Do not rub the site of heparin administration, as it can result in easy bruising.
  11. Dispose off the sharp safely into the sharp container.