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.
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.
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CONTENTS
IV Catheter-associated Percutaneous Injuries:
Current trends and future opportunities
By Barbara DeBaun, RN, BSN, CIC
Focus on the HCW’s Role in Preventing Needlestick Injuries
An Interview with Karen Daley, RN, MPH
Mary Foley, RN, MS
(Moderator)Immediate Past-President, American Nurses Association
Bruce Cunha, RN, MS, COHN-S
Brenda Vason, RN, BSC, CIC
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