To all professional Nurses, in administering Tuberculin Test to the patient?

Question

To all professional Nurses:

1. in administering Tuberculin Test to the patient, is it permissible and safe to use the needle position "bevel down" technique of the tuberculin syringe?

2. I observe that most Nursing Procedure Manuals prefer to use the needle position "bevel up" technique of the tuberculin syringe in administering Tuberculin test to the patient?

Why is this so?

Note: please share your source of information.

thanks :)

Answer 1

Bevel Up is the correct procedure.  when using the Bevel down method your more likely to expose the patients blood.

think of the needle as a knife; when turned upside down your poking the patient with the dull side of it first. It just makes the injection more painful and more subject to exposing blood.

Answer 2

When the bevel is up, the point of the needle more easily (and painlessly) penetrates the skin. With the bevel down, you tend to shave or plow skin tissue as you insert the needle which is more painful to the patient in many cases. I vaguely recall hearing in nursing school ( over 30 years ago!) that the bevel-down approach could clog the needle, presumably as the tissue is shaved and forced into the opening.

HM1:Great to see another Navy type here.  I am a retired Navy Nurse and a former "A" School instructor many moons ago (1981).