Common Mistakes: Preparing and Administering an Injection
These are the specific ways this task goes wrong on the job — not hypothetical edge cases, but patterns that cause real documentation errors, patient-safety issues, or workflow problems.
Giving an IM injection at the wrong angle or site, increasing the risk of hitting a nerve or blood vessel.
Not checking for a wheal on an intradermal injection, which means the dose may have gone subcutaneous instead — a false-negative risk for a TB test.
Recapping a used needle, a leading cause of accidental needlestick injuries.
Rubbing the injection site immediately afterward, which can push medication out of the muscle or cause bruising.
How the Quality Checkpoints Prevent These
Every mistake above is caught by one of this task's quality checkpoints — the habit of checking these consistently is what actually prevents the error, not just knowing it exists.
- ✓
All "rights" of medication administration are checked before drawing up or giving the injection, not just before charting it afterward.
- ✓
Needle gauge, length, angle, and site all match the ordered route — not substituted out of habit.
- ✓
The needle is disposed of immediately in a sharps container with no recapping.
- ✓
Documentation (drug, dose, route, site, time) happens immediately, not from memory later in the shift.
Practice the written exam too
The knowledge behind every task is tested in the written CCMA exam. 630+ free questions.
Take the Practice Test →