¹Marmara Üniversitesi Eczacılık Fakültesi Klinik Eczacılık Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Türkiye
²Şanlıurfa Viranşehir Devlet Hastanesi, Şanlıurfa, Türkiye
³Haydarpaşa Numune Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, İç Hastalıkları Kliniği, İstanbul, Türkiye DOI : 10.12991/mpj.2014187244 The aim of this study is to evaluate previous attitude and knowledge of patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus towards disposable insulin pens utilization at hospital setting. This study was conducted in internal medicine ward of a research and training hospital between March 01 and April 30, 2013. Patients Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus hospitalized with any reason during the present study were eligible if they were 18 years or older, prescribed at least one disposable insulin pen for at least 4 weeks, and accepted to participate to the present study. The steps for proper administration and storage were evaluated in utilization of disposable insulin pens. A total of 101 Type 2 Diabetic Patients (mean of age: 63.7±1.2 years old; male/female: 47/54) were evaluated in this study. Patients received education regarding insulin pen utilization mostly from nurse (56.4%) and physician (34.7%) and only two patients gathered information about insulin pen administration from their pharmacist. Although 97% of them thought that they administered disposable insulin pen correctly, most of them were failure to discard the insulin pen before expire date reported by manufacturer (68.1%), failure to prime needle (65.3%), failure to store in-use pen at room temperature (58.4%), and failure to hold needle adequate period before withdrawal of pen needle from skin (49.5%). When evaluated discard pen needle after each injection, 39.6% of them stored their disposable insulin pen with needle. Only 2.1% of them followed correctly in all instructions about administration and storage of disposable insulin pens. It was found that most of the key components for proper utilization of disposable insulin pen were incorrectly and incompletely applied by hospitalized patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Keywords : Clinical Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical care, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Disposable Insulin Pen