The main condition of professionalisation in the nursing profession is undoubtedly to understand science and the scientific method adequately and reflect them onto the profession. Studies conducted using scientific method in nursing will move nurses from experience-based decisions to evidence-based decisions in the future. According to what is cited by Kocaman (2003), evidence-based practice started in 1972 with Dr. Archie Cochrane in the world. It was brought to agenda in Turkey in 2000 for the first time. Evidence-based practice is the selection of researches and results on a certain subject, synthesising the results, and preparing these results for decision of clinical practice (Kocaman, 2003). In order to conduct the nursing undergraduate education according to certain standards, Nursing National Core Education Program (NNCEP) was established in Turkey. Within the framework of NNCEP, it is mentioned that evidence-based practices should be taken into consideration in meeting the healthcare needs in nursing curriculum (NNCEP, 2014).
IMI (intramüscular) is a common treatment practice type applied frequently by nurses. For injection practice, selecting an area away from nerve, blood vessels and bone protrusions is an important issue for the practice (Kaya and Palloş, 2016; Lynn, 2015). In the literature, it is stated that dorsogluteal (DG) region, one of the IMI application areas, is a risky area for IMI application since there are rich blood vessels, subcutaneous tissue is thick compared to the other injection regions and it is close to sciatic nerve (Small, 2004; Nicoll and Hesby, 2002; Rodger and King, 2000; Lynn, 2015). Many studies have revealed that injections made into the DG region cause sciatic nerve injury (Kakati et al., 2013; Şener et al., 2014; Kadıoğlu, 2018). It has been stated in the studies that sciatic nerve injury develops due to injection practices made in DG region, and injection region and the technique used are the most important causes of sciatic nerve injury. Sciatic nerve injury causes paralysis, foot drop and deformities in some cases (Kakati et al., 2013; Şener et al., 2014; Kadıoğlu, 2018; Jung kim and Hyun Park, 2014; Small, 2004).
Evidence-based studies state that ventrogluteal (VG) region is the safest region since the thickness of subcutaneous tissue is lower than the other injection sites, it is far from the major nerves and blood vessels, the region is easily detected due to the possibility of determining bone protrusions, muscles in the region is large and developed (Small, 2004; Nicoll and Hesby, 2002; Rodger and King, 2000; Lynn, 2015).
Although VG region injection administrations are in the textbooks and shown in education (Lynn, 2015; Kaya and Palloş, 2016), it is seen that clinical nurses and nursing students mostly prefer DG region and less prefer VG region at high rates (Kaya et al. 2012; Tuğrul and Denat, 2014; Yavuz and Karabacak, 2011; Gülnar and Çalışkan, 2014; Güneş et al., 2009; Walsh and Brophy, 2011; Şanlıalp and Kuzu 2017; Alan and Çalışkan 2018; Šakić et al., 2012; Sarı et al., 2017; Arslan and Özden, 2018; Su and Bekmezci 2019). As the reason for this, nurses think that their knowledge level for VG region is not sufficient, they have never used this region, they do not know how to determine the region since the anatomic structure of the VG region is small, it is hard to position the patient while determining VG region, they are afraid to harm the patient, patients are not used to this region and the patients will not allow them to use the region. In addition, they stated that they do not prefer the VG region since they are used to other intramuscular injection sites, the patients will feel more pain if injection is made to the VG region, muscles in this region are not well developed, the region cannot be used in overweight and slim patients, they do not prefer VG region believing that the injector will touch the bone (Tuğrul and Denat, 2014; Gülnar and Çalışkan, 2014; Su and Bekmezci, 2020; Güneş et al., 2009; Korkmaz et al., 2018; Arslan and Özden, 2018; Eroğlu and Çevik, 2019).
Despite all these, the studies on increasing the use of VG region have revealed that the training given to the nurses increases their knowledge levels and the use of VG region (Arslan and Özden, 2018; Eroğlu and Çevik, 2019; Şanlıalp and Kuzu 2017; Öztürk et al., 2017).
In the light of all these data, it is seen that injection administration to VG region, an evidence-based practice example, is not preferred much and the trainings are effective in preference of VG region. We believe that it will be effective in realizing the evidence-based nursing practices repeated in nursing intern/last year’s education, which is one step before the working life. Therefore, in this study, we planned to evaluate the effect of the training of injection to VG region to the students by repeating it.
Hypotheses
H1: The training positively affects the students’ views about VG region.
H2: The training increases the knowledge level of the students about VG region.
H3:The training increases the students’ preference for VG region.