Healthcare workers (HCWs) suffer between 600,000 and one million injuries from conventional needles and sharps annually in all home and clinical settings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 384,000 percutaneous injuries (PIs) occur every year in U.S. hospitals, and 236,000 PIs (61%) result from hollow-bore needles, such as IV catheters. These exposures can lead to hepatitis C and HIV infections. Over 20 other infections can be transmitted through needlesticks including TB, syphilis, malaria, and herpes. In response to this epidemic occupational hazard, the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act 2000 required the use of safer devices to protect HCWs from these potentially life-threatening exposures.

Protecting the Healthcare Worker: IV Safety (CE Expired)

IV-catheters usage can be found in ambulatory surgery centers; emergency departments; neonatal, pediatric, and adult intensive care units; and acute, post-acute, and home-care settings. Their ubiquity and their associated high risk for infection make them a very special case. In her article, Ms. DeBaun focuses on IV catheter-associated PIs and explores the educational and training challenges related to the safe, effective insertion of these devices.

The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act 2000 requires employers solicit the input of frontline workers. In an interview with a clinician who contracted two infections from a needlestick injury and in a roundtable discussion with three actively involved health professionals, we explore how HCWs have been involved and what more can be done.
Click here to download IV Safety Monograph and receive free CEs

Nurses administering chemotherapy are at risk for injuries caused by Huber needles. According to the Exposure Prevention Information Network (EPINet), rebound needle injuries are on the rise and pose a high risk for pathogen transmission. Moreover, nurses who both mix and administer hazardous drugs used in chemotherapy are at increased risk from exposure to those drugs. Exposure to hazardous drugs can result in acute symptoms such as skin irritation, sore throat, cough, dizziness, headache, allergic reaction, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

The prevalence of vascular access devices and hazardous drugs used in the administration of chemotherapy makes this group of healthcare workers a very special case. Safe and effective use of vascular access devices (VAD) and the safe handling of hazardous drugs is the purpose of this publication — Protecting the Healthcare Worker: Focus on Oncology. In March of 2004, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released an Alert: Preventing Occupational Exposures to Antineoplastic and Other Hazardous Drugs in Healthcare Settings. Protecting the Healthcare Worker asked Ms. Polovich and Ms. Eileen Glynn-Tucker, who have been at the forefront of safety education for oncology nurses, to describe some of the recent recommendations for safe handling of hazardous drugs as well as safety precautions from needlestick injuries in chemotherapy administration
Click here to download Oncology Monograph and receive free CEs

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