Question

a nurse is preparing to administer an injection of an antibiotic to a patient. the nurse asks a pharmacy technician to bring a numbing agent to be administered locally before the injection. the technician should identify that the nurse plans to use which of the following routes of administration for the antibiotic injection? intramuscular intraperitoneal intravenous subcutaneous

Explanation:

To determine the route of administration, we analyze each option:

• Intramuscular (IM) injections are given into muscle. They can be painful, so a numbing agent is often used beforehand.
• Intraperitoneal injections are into the peritoneal cavity, not typically used for routine antibiotic administration with a numbing agent for the patient's comfort.
• Intravenous (IV) injections are into veins and are usually not preceded by a local numbing agent for routine administration as the insertion of an IV catheter might be numbed, but the question is about the antibiotic injection route.
• Subcutaneous (SC) injections are into the fatty tissue under the skin. While some SC injections can be uncomfortable, the use of a numbing agent before an antibiotic injection is more common with IM due to the muscle tissue's sensitivity and the typical volume/drug nature of IM antibiotics.

Among these, intramuscular injections are more likely to use a local numbing agent before administration to reduce pain.

Answer:

A. Intramuscular