Needle Stick Injuries

Health care workers are at risk of being exposed to blood-borne pathogens through needle-stick and other sharp object injuries. The pathogens of primary concern are the human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus. When a needle-stick injury occurs, workers report the incident to their supervisor. This information is forwarded to county health departments and ultimately to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A CDC researcher used these data to compare needle-stick injuries in community hospitals and tertiary-care hospitals. Is this a paired or independent comparison? Explain your answer.

Germs and many other diseases spread primarily through airborne particles, skin to skin contact, and or touching objects such as door handles, hospital buttons, or by sharing patient possessions. Nurses and other health care clinicians are constantly in physical contact with many different patients, who all have varying illness’ and diseases themselves. Many may also carry a

Blood-borne infections are not spread by respiratory droplets, so the use of masks is not necessary.

The standard precautions are implemented at all times to decrease the risk of transmitting infectious agents. Assuming that all patients could carry an infection, this minimises the potential spread of HAI’s. These standard precautions include routine hand hygiene, the use of personal protective equipment, safe handling and disposure of sharps and routine environmental cleaning.4,5 In this situation, where blood is present, this is considered a biohazard. Hand hygiene must be performed before touching the patient, before and after any procedures or exposure to bodily substances and after touching the patient or any of the patient’s surroundings. The use of Personal protective equipment should be used when attending to the patient. This includes protective eye wear, a surgical mask and an apron for protection from any splashes or sprays of blood generated by the patient. Gloves should also be worn for single use only when coming in contact with open skin and bodily fluids. To minimise the spread of blood, the bystander with visibly soiled hands should also be advised to thoroughly clean them with soap and

Sharps injuries (mainly needlestick), carry the risk of serious infections. Healthcare providers are exposed to these dangerous and prospectively life-threatening infections. Ideally, most needlestick injuries together with other sharps injuries remain preventable. Sharps injuries remain an important area of study since it affects a large number of healthcare providers. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 385,000 needlesticks injuries take place yearly and hospital-based

Compared to other members of the community of health care nurses are at a significant risk of needle stick injury because of their frequent performance with vein punctures and taking care of patients suffering from different infectious diseases. Needles may cause injury to you or to someone else if they were not properly discarded after use and can also cause an injury if you do not use gloves to protect your hands while you work with needles. If a medical professional gets stuck by a needle, then they need to wash the area thoroughly with soap and contact their healthcare provider as soon as

Gloves, goggles, masks and gowns are minimum recommended requirements of PPE in any clinical environment where contact with blood or bodily fluid is likely (HSE 2011). Although wearing gloves does not prevent injury. It minimises exposure and cross contamination, reducing the risk of infection (AFPP 2011). The healthcare professional in the diary decided not to wear gloves because they catch on her rings and tear. This suggests that the rings have jagged edges or stones, which potentially could cause injury to the patient and also pose as an infection risk. Professional guidelines also dictate that staff should be bare below the

Stethoscope is one of the most commonly used medical devices on a clinical setting, the environment of which is often represented a potential vector for hospital acquired infections. Scholars highlights that the sterilization of invasive equipments and the disinfection of any kind of devices before the interventions are generally ignored (Kilic et al., 2011). Among those devices, stethoscope is the widely-used equipment with the most possibility of contamination of transmitted organism. Researchers emphasize that the increasing proliferation of infection required diligent hygiene of both hands and instruments between patients to reduce hospital acquired infections (Shaw and Cooper, 2014). Therefore, a survey is being conducted with a brief nurse-directed questionnaire to review perceived reasons for stethoscope antisepsis non-compliance and stethoscope antisepsis compliance. The purpose of this project is to improve compliance with stethoscope care before and after patient contact on the Acute Medical and Progressive Care Unit (D6/5) at University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. The following

Each year, 385,000 needlestick injuries and other sharps related injuries are sustained by hospital based healthcare professionals; which equates to an average of almost 1,000 sharps injuries per day in the U.S. Accidental needlestick and sharps not only cause injuries, but they also carry a major risk for transmission of blood borne infections. Although virtually all healthcare workers are at risk of harm from occupational exposures such as these, the Center for Disease Control notes that nurses sustain approximately half of all needlestick injuries. While there are several precautions and regulations implemented on the administration and disposal of sharps, many

Sharps injuries (mainly needlestick), carry the risk of serious infections. Healthcare providers are exposed to dangerous and potentially life-threatening infections. Most needlestick injuries together with other sharps injuries remain largely preventable. Sharps injuries remain an important area of study since it affects a large number of healthcare providers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 385,000 needlesticks injuries occur yearly in hospital-based environment’s (Wilburn, 2004). The utilization of an apparatus with safety made protective attributes, mandated in the United States in year 2000 has been led to decreased rates of needlestick injuries (Battles, Keyes & Grady, 2008). However, Australia remains the only nation with well developed infection prevention and control systems

Contaminated reusable sharps must be placed in containers that are puncture resistant and label or color coded and leak proof on side and bottom. Reusable sharps that are contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious materials must not be stored or process in a manner that requires employees to reached by hand into the containers. Infection can be air-borne: coughing and sneezing. Contaminated objects, skin-to-skin contact: touch, sharing personal items, and clothing or objects. Contact with body fluids: saliva, urine, faces or blood. In addition, addressing factors related to the spread of infections within healthcare setting by needing hand hygiene: washing hands before and after effectively. Sterilization; intending to kill all microorganisms. Cleaning to prevent from occurring infections. Disinfection uses liquid chemicals on surfaces and at rooms temperature to kill disease causing

The hospitals worldwide try their best to enforce the rules of preventing client to nurse transmission, but sometimes the sickness is bigger than they think. “A communicable disease is caused by an infectious agent that is spread from person to person, either directly or indirectly. In their practice, nurses may accidentally or inadvertently transmit a communicable disease to clients” (crnbc.ca/). The article, Injection Safety states that,” The reuse of needles, syringes and other injection or infusion equipment can result in transmission of blood borne pathogens, endangering patients/residents and staff.”

Health care workers can be injured by sharp medical devices, such as syringes and scalpel blades. Even small wounds from such waste can potentially transmit blood-borne infections such as HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Good techniques can reduce such risk, including best practice in the disposal of sharps. Complete removal of the sharps hazards is not practical and a degree of risk will always remain. Injuries can still occur when taking blood samples and when administering an injection. They can also occur when recapping needles or by poor disposal of sharp waste. Medical technology manufacturers are continuously addressing this challenge by developing safer approaches to injections. For example, syringes with retractable needles are now available and can minimise the chances of needle stick injuries.

AIDS epidemic in the 90s posed a huge risk for nurses who assisted in routines, which required needles. Numerous other diseases also follow this needle stick infections. Besides the risks that involve losing the lives of the nurses, the financial loss of such infection is estimated to be $400 to $1 billion per year. Due to this problem, several agencies attempted to set health regulations to prevent further infection cases. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) required hospitals and nurses to make safe needle containers, prohibiting practice of recapping needles by one hand, and to provide information to prevent infection cases. However, this regulation was disputed due to the limit that it sets, making emergency cases difficult address as quickly as possible. Dr. Janine Jaegger argued that the focus should be shifted to product design that can help nurses and that provides safety. The Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services agreed to the idea and stated that engineering control should be used to reduce worker exposure to harmful substances (293). This idea has a legitimate support since articles in 1984 and 1985 indicated high alarms on number of diseases infections due to the design of the needle sticks.

If you are a health worker, always wear protective gloves in situations that involve exposure to blood or other body fluids.