Table 1.
Comparison by occupation of responders to survey on use of autoinjector vs. manual injection of epinephrine
| Characteristic | Occupations, no. (%) | All (n=172)a | P valueb | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||||
| ED nurse (n=103) | ED PA/NP (n=7) | EM resident (n=20) | EM staff physician (n=33) | ED pharmacist (n=8) | |||
| Gender (n= 167) | <0.001 | ||||||
| Female | 76 (74) | 3 (50) | 5 (26) | 10 (32) | 1 (14) | 96 (57) | |
| Male | 27 (26) | 3 (50) | 14 (74) | 21 (68) | 6 (86) | 71 (43) | |
| Years in practice | <0.001 | ||||||
| 0–3 | 0 | 2 (29) | 17 (85) | 3 (9) | 2 (25) | 24 (14) | |
| 4–9 | 26 (25) | 4 (57) | 3 (15) | 11 (33) | 5 (63) | 49 (28) | |
| 10–20 | 41 (40) | 1 (14) | 0 | 10 (30) | 0 | 52 (30) | |
| >20 | 36 (35) | 0 | 0 | 9 (27) | 1 (13) | 47 (27) | |
| Epinephrine recommended, ordered, or administered in ED (n=169) | 88 (87) | 6 (86) | 17 (85) | 31 (97) | 4 (50) | 147 (87) | 0.02 |
| Epinephrine formulation used (n=147)c | |||||||
| Autoinjector | 71 (81) | 3 (50) | 17 (100) | 21 (68) | 4 (100) | 116 (79) | 0.02 |
| Manual IM injection | 36 (41) | 1 (17) | 3 (18) | 21 (68) | 1 (25) | 62 (42) | 0.004 |
| Subcutaneous injection | 53 (60) | 1 (17) | 0 | 18 (58) | 1 (25) | 74 (50) | <0.001 |
| IV bolus | 24 (27) | 3 (50) | 3 (18) | 11 (35) | 0 | 41 (28) | 0.35 |
| IV infusion | 17 (19) | 0 | 4 (24) | 10 (32) | 3 (75) | 34 (23) | 0.06 |
| Injured using epinephrine autoinjector (n=168) | 0.79 | ||||||
| No | 97 (97) | 6 (100) | 20 (100) | 33 (100) | 8 (100) | 165 (98) | |
| Finger stick injury | 3 (3) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 (2) | |
| Other injury | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Injured during manual IM injection (n=168) | NA | ||||||
| No | 101 (100) | 5 (100) | 20 (100) | 33 (100) | 8 (100) | 168 (100) | |
| Finger stick injury | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Other injury | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Training time for epinephrine autoinjector, min (n=169) | 0.66 | ||||||
| <5 | 43 (43) | 4 (57) | 6 (30) | 12 (36) | 2 (29) | 67 (40) | |
| 5–10 | 45 (45) | 3 (43) | 11 (55) | 16 (48) | 5 (71) | 81 (48) | |
| 10–20 | 10 (10) | 0 | 3 (15) | 3 (9) | 0 | 16 (9) | |
| 20–30 | 2 (2) | 0 | 0 | 2 (6) | 0 | 4 (2) | |
| >30 | 1 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (1) | |
| Training time for manual IM injection, min (n=166) | <0.001 | ||||||
| <5 | 23 (23) | 1 (14) | 0 | 4 (12) | 1 (14) | 30 (18) | |
| 5–10 | 45 (46) | 3 (43) | 4 (20) | 9 (27) | 3 (43) | 64 (39) | |
| 10–20 | 25 (26) | 3 (43) | 9 (45) | 9 (27) | 3 (43) | 49 (30) | |
| 20–30 | 5 (5) | 0 | 4 (20) | 4 (20) | 0 | 17 (10) | |
| >30 | 0 | 0 | 3 (15) | 3 (15) | 0 | 6 (4) | |
| Overall preference (n=168) | <0.001 | ||||||
| Highly prefer autoinjector | 72 (73) | 2 (29) | 17 (85) | 14 (42) | 4 (50) | 109 (65) | |
| Somewhat prefer autoinjector | 13 (13) | 2 (29) | 3 (15) | 6 (18) | 3 (38) | 28 (17) | |
| No preference | 7 (7) | 2 (29) | 0 | 6 (18) | 1 (13) | 16 (10) | |
| Somewhat prefer manual IM injection | 6 (6) | 0 | 0 | 6 (18) | 0 | 12 (7) | |
| Highly prefer manual IM injection | 1 (1) | 1 (14) | 0 | 1 (3) | 0 | 3 (2) | |
ED, emergency department; EM, emergency medicine; IM, intramuscular; IV, intravenous; NA, not applicable; NP, nurse practitioner; PA, physician assistant.
a
One respondent did not report occupation.
b
P values for comparisons of features by occupation were obtained with Kruskal-Wallis or Fisher exact tests.
c
Respondent could select more than 1 choice.