Convert Returned Value To Integer

I have the following stored procedure for creating a transaction record and after inserting the record, the transaction id is returned.

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DECLARE @TransactionID int
    <------ INSERT statement (after inserting the record, select the identity ID) --------->
        Select @TransactionID = @@Identity
    RETURN
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.
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Dim transactionID As Integer
connection.Open()
Dim reader As SqlDataReader
reader = command.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)
Dim p3 As New SqlParameter("@TransactionID", SqlDbType.Int)
p3.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
transactionID = Convert.ToInt16(p3.Value)
connection.Close()
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.
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I wanna retrieve the transactionID of the newly inserted record so that I can use it in my next step of inserting a new record to another table which has reference to the transactionID as a foreign key. However, I encountered error and suspect that it is due to the conversion of the output to Integer as it worked when I tested using dummy Integers.

I tried many different ways of conversion but couldn't resolve the error. Could anyone help?