April 1997 

  Quick Summary: When giving an intramuscular injection to a patient, it falls below the accepted standard of care for nursing practice to fail to locate and use an appropriate site.

  The risk in going outside an appropriate site on the buttocks is that the patient will sustain injury to the sciatic nerve, which can result in a permanent disability.  COURT OF APPEALS OF UTAH, 1997.

  When administering an intramuscular injection, it is a nurse’s legal responsibility to ascertain that the site of the injection is located within an acceptable area of the body. Failing to do so falls below the accepted legal standard of care for nursing practice, according to the Court of Appeals of Utah in a recent case.

  In this case, however, the hospital escaped having to pay damages even though the nurse’s conduct was a departure from professional standards.

  The patient’s attorneys got an affidavit from a registered nurse stating it was not within accepted standards of nursing practice to give an IM injection outside the proper area, and to the effect that it caused this patient a permanent sciatic nerve injury. The court accepted the nurse’s qualifications as an expert witness on the legal standard of care for nursing, but ruled the nurse was not qualified to state an opinion making a cause-and-effect connection between a departure from accepted professional standards and the injury this patient was claiming, meaning the case had to be dismissed for lack of proof. Kent vs. Hospital, 930 P. 2d 904 (Utah App., 1997).

More references from nursinglaw.com

http://www.nursinglaw.com/IM-injections-nursing-standard.htm

http://www.nursinglaw.com/IM-injection-nurse-testimony.pdf

http://www.nursinglaw.com/injection1.htm