Effectiveness of Rhythmic Skin Tapping on Pain during Intra Muscular (IM) Injection among Male Adults in a Selected Hospital at Mangalore

Injections are currently the gold standard for administering various medications parenterally. According to World Health Organization, Intramuscular injection is an administration of medications parenterally through a skin puncture by a syringe and a needle deep into a large muscle of the body for prophylactic or curative purposes. The major side effect related to intra muscular injections is the accompanying pain due to the penetration of the skin by the needle and the mechanical and chemical effects of the drug during and after its injection. Purpose of this study was to evaluate the Effectiveness of Rhythmic Skin Tapping on pain in male adults during IM injection. Forty male adults receiving atleast two doses of IM injection were selected. The group was control for itself, the Rhythmic Skin Tapping was omitted on one occasion after intramuscular injection, while instituted on another occasion. After the intervention, level of pain was assessed subjectively by Numerical Pain Rating scale and Verbal Pain Intensity scale. The findings of Numerical Pain Rating scale revealed that 37.5% had moderate pain before Rhythmic Skin Tapping and after the intervention, 5% had moderate pain. Verbal Pain Intensity scale revealed that 32.5% had moderate pain before Rhythmic Skin Tapping and after the intervention none had moderate pain. Findings acknowledged that Rhythmic Skin Tapping was effective in reducing the pain level of the male adults.