Aims: The installation of intravenous catheter is an unpleasant and painful experience for many patients. Then, it is necessary to provide new methods to either reduce or remove pain in the patients’ injection point. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of positioning (either sitting or lying) during the installation of intravenous catheter on pain level and the following anxiety in the patients.

Instrument & Methods: In the two-blinded clinical trial study, 60 patients hospitalized in the internal wards of Arak Amir-Al-Momenin Hospital were studied in 2015. The subjects selected via available method were divided into two groups including sitting and supine groups based on the simple random allocation. The pain severity and anxiety severity indices were investigated in both groups before and after the venipuncture based on the visual analogue scale (VAS). Data was analyzed by SPSS 20 software using Chi-square, paired-T, and independent T tests.

Findings: Mean scores of anxiety before the venipuncture in both groups were not significantly different (p>0.05). Nevertheless, after the venipuncture, mean anxiety score and mean pain score in sitting group were significantly more than supine group (p=0.0001). In addition, mean scores of anxiety before and after the venipuncture in the supine group were significantly different (p=0.0001). However, no significant difference was observed between the scores before and after the venipuncture in sitting group (p>0.05).

Conclusion: During the installation of intravenous catheter, the supine position can reduce the pain level and the following anxiety in the patients compared to the sitting position.