The Need for Sharps Safety in Hospital Settings

Mulloy, D. F., & Hughes, R. G. (2008). Patient safety & quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2678/

According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), any worker who handles sharp devices or equipment is at risk, especially those who handle hypodermic needles/syringes, suture needles, butterfly-type needles, blood-collection needles, scalpels and IV stylets. OSHA also estimates that over 5.6 million workers in the healthcare industry and related occupations are at risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens, with nursing staff suffering the most sharps-related injuries and subsequent infections.

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

healthcare organization accrediting bodies, and to maintain credibility with patients and peers alike, must adhere to the National Patient Safety Goals. As stated by Ulrich and Kear (2014), "Not only are nurses responsible for providing safe patient care, we are also responsible for creating an environment in which others can provide safe patient care, and for being the last line of defense when needed between the patient and potential harm. Having a deep understanding of patient safety and patient safety culture allows nurses to be the leaders we need to be in ensuring that our patients are always

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

Safety is a small measure that can make a big impact on a patient in the clinical setting. In some cases, it can even cost patients their lives. According to the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, safety is defined as a tool to minimize risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance (Barnsteiner, 2011). Safety problems can range from the nurse not knowing how to work certain equipment, or the nurse recording values wrong because he or she is distracted. Either way, these safety issues impact the clinical setting in a negative way. In order to have a functional, safe clinical environment, time and money must be spent to keep the hospital in working order and the nurses in the correct mindset.

One the main roles healthcare workers (HCWs) can do is to provide patients with a safe environment whilst they are in the healthcare setting. In providing clinical safety to patients HCWs are ensuring that the patient will be safe from preventable adverse events occurring to them whilst they are in the hospital setting. Patient safety should be a of high priority to the healthcare setting and HCWs. Nursing staff are the main providers of care to patients whilst in the healthcare setting and have many responsibilities in delivering safe patient care. Whilst in the healthcare setting patients are vulnerable and at the hand of healthcare workers, thus it is extremely important for healthcare workers to maintain hand hygiene. To maintain a

"Effects Of A National Safe Patient Handling Program On Nursing Injury Incidence Rates." JONA: The Journal Of Nursing Administration, vol 44, no. 10, 2014, pp. 525-534. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health),

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

These references were authored by not only doctors and nurses, but regulatory bodies as well such as the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare (2010), Joint Commission (2009), Institute for Healthcare Improvement among others. The review consists of all primary source materials appropriate to the problem stated.

The priority issue is safe staffing for nurses working in hospitals. This issue is a priority because many times nurses are overwhelmed with his or her patient load and cannot provide safe, effective patient care. With such a heavy emphasis on patient outcomes and patient satisfaction, more attention should be dedicated to this issue. Research studies consistently find that whenever there is high patient-nurse ratio it negatively impacts patient safety. A great number of studies have demonstrated that higher nurse staffing levels and richer skill mix have a strong association with reduced adverse patient outcomes (Twigg, Gelder, & Myers, 2015). This paper will discuss policy priority issue of safe staffing by identifying key points, providing supporting empirical evidence and recommendations to improve safe staffing, and the impact and importance safe staffing has on nursing.

Hospitals are cutting back cost and when they do, they cut back on staffing which becomes a patient safety issue. The understaffing caused by burnout, is one of the problems leading to a higher rate of infectious diseases. The main reason for this is that burned out nurses are having a mental lapse when it comes to hand hygiene. Plus, the nurses do not have the time to enforce the infection control practices and procedures within their own team (Wood, 2012). The understaffing problem within the nursing community doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. A 2012 report in the American Journal of Medical Quality projected a shortage of registered nurses to spread across the country by 2030 (Gupta, 2014).

Needle stick can occur in medical facilities performing venipuncture. The effects of needle sticks are negligible; these devices can transmit blood- borne diseases, placing those exposed at increased risk of contracting infectious diseases, such as hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To reduce the problem of needle sticks in the medical profession, workers should be more attentive when performing venipuncture, attend safety and prevention workshops on a monthly basis. Other solutions can be, facilities hiring more experienced medical workers. Avoiding recapping needles, and reporting all needle stick and other sharps – related injuries, disposing of used needles in appropriate sharps disposal containers.