Drawing up Injectible medication protocol

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Drawing up medication is part of doing an injection. It varies depending on the substance

How to draw up medication

• Attach the wider (smaller gauge, often blunt) needle onto the syringe.
• Open the vial or medication container:

An ampoule

• • An ampoule (see image) will need breaking. This should be done with an ampoule opener, if you have one, but can be done by holding it upright so that all liquid flows into the bottom, gripping the top with some gauze (or a tissue) in your other hand, and gently breaking it along the score line. Dispose of the top in a sharps bin.
  • A vial with a rubber top can be punctured with the needle when it is used.
  • A suspended powder (such as decapeptyl) will have two vials: one containing a powder, and the other containing a medium for it to suspend in. You will need to draw up the medium first.
• Remove the cap from the needle and draw up the medication from vial. This can take up to a minute or so for viscous medications such as testosterone; for these you have to create a vacuum in the syringe and just wait until the medication fills the empty space.
  • If you are injecting a suspended powder (such as decapeptyl), remove the needle from the medium vial and insert it into the powder vial. Inject the medium into the powder, shake the vial to pick up all the powder, and draw up all the mixture.
• Replace lid on needle and flick to remove air bubbles.
• Dispose of the medication container- if it is an ampoule with sharp edges, use a sharps bin.
• Whilst holding syringe so that the needle is pointing up, remove the wider (smaller gauge) needle and dispose of it in a sharps bin.
• Attach the thinner (larger gauge) needle and remove the lid.
• Eject the air in the syringe until you see that a small amount of medication comes to the end of the needle. Replace the cap until you are ready to inject.