Sharps Safety Procedures And Guidelines

The Australian College of Operating Room Nurses (2014) also recommend the wearing of personal protection equipment, proper disposal of sharps and the inclusion of a sharps injury prevention education program as part of the operating suite professional development. Although guidelines for the safe handling of sharps have been developed by professional bodies, national governance bodies and facilities there continues to be high numbers of sharps injuries (Jagger et al.,

Mohohammadnejad, E., Dopolani, F. N., (2015). Risk factors of needle stick and sharp injuries among health care workers. (2015). Journal of Nursing & Midwifery Sciences, 2(1), 34-39

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

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

Over the last several years, a wide variety of health care organizations have been facing a number of challenges. This is because of pressures associated with: rising costs, increasing demands and larger numbers of patients. For many facilities this has created a situation where patient safety issues are often overlooked. This is because the staff is facing tremendous amounts of pressure, long hours and more patients. The combination of these factors has created a situation where a variety of hospitals need to improve their patient safety procedures. In the case of Sharp Memorial Hospital, they are focused on addressing these issues through different strategies. To fully understand how they are able to achieve these objectives requires looking at: specific ways the organization has responded to the crisis in medical errors, their definition of patient safety, the causes of errors, systematic barriers and transformations that have been adopted. Together, these different elements will provide the greatest insights as to how the facility is coping with the crisis in patient safety.

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

The Perioperative Nursing Data Sets (PNDS) are professional guidelines developed and maintained by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses. These guidelines outline the expectations for the OR nurse to carry out while a patient is in their care. One item of the PNDS states "the patient is free from signs and symptoms of injury due to extraneous objects" (Rothrock, 2015). Counts including sponges, sharps,

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

There were various aspects in this investigation that had to be conducted carefully to maintain a safe environment. Prior to conduction the experiment, the students tested how far the foam would travel up to beaker to ensure that a sufficient sized beaker could be used to prevent any spillages. As the practical involved the use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), students had to be cautious when using this substance. Even though the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was only 6% concentrated, extra care was taken to avoid contact with the skin as it may cause a slight burning sensation. Furthermore, the beakers were labelled to prevent any cross contamination, especially between the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and water, as they were both colourless. For example, if hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was used instead of water to dilute the Catalase concentration, the

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

Abstract: Attention has been brought to the public knowing about employee health care workers have been exposed to needle stick and sharp object injuries, but there is little knowledge and attention among medical students. Medical students volunteered to take a survey to help determine the frequency of these injuries that occur. There were one-hundred six students out of one-hundred seven students that responded to the survey. Out of those students, thirty-three percent of the students reported that they have had one or more injuries due to sharp objects or being stuck by a needle. There were

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.