How to Prevent Needle Stick Injury?

According to NCBI, Needle Stick Injuries (NSIs) are very bad for people who work in healthcare because they can cause infections and other health issues.

These injuries happen when a needle or other sharp medical device pokes through the skin by accident. This can happen during medical procedures or when handling sharps that have been contaminated.

American Healthcare Compliance offers Needlestick Safety and Prevention Training for Healthcare Professionals course to reduce needlestick injuries and bloodborne pathogen exposure.

However, if the right safety measures and rules are in place, these injuries can be avoided, protecting the health of healthcare employees.

Let’s talk about effective ways of how to prevent needle stick injury?

Understanding the Risks

Healthcare employees who get needle stick injuries are at a very high risk of getting blood-borne diseases like HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

These injuries can also cause physical pain, anxiety, and stress in the people who get them.

This is why it is so important for healthcare facilities to put preventative measures in place to keep their staff safe.

Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act

The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act of 2000 aims to enhance safety for healthcare employees by amending OSHA regulations regarding exposure to bloodborne pathogens.

Employers must take extra steps, like using engineered sharps with injury protection and needleless systems, keeping exposure control plans up to date with new technologies, letting workers help choose engineering controls, and keeping a log of sharps injuries.

How to Prevent Needle Stick Injury?

Recent studies have shown that a lot can cut down accidents by taking these steps after a thorough risk assessment of each area:

1. Use Safety-Engineered Devices
2. Practice Safe Handling Techniques
3. Wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
4. Promptly Dispose of Needles
5. Education and Training

Guidelines and Implementation

The safety and health of healthcare employees are the most important things in healthcare settings.

One area that needs more attention is the number of needlestick and other sharps injuries.

These things that happen, which are usually caused by not properly handling medical waste, are very bad for the health of people who work in healthcare.

The goal of this detailed guide is to give you a full understanding of needlestick and other sharps injuries, what they mean, and how to avoid them.

To keep employees safe from injury at work, like getting stuck with a needle, OSHA has made rules and regulations.

These rules say that employers have to make sure their workplaces are safe, follow safety rules, and train their employees properly.

The needs can be summed up in 5 points:

1. Proper Education and Training

At the right level, employer and employee representatives must work together to get rid of and stop risks, protect employees health and safety, and make the workplace safe. They are to work together to develop:

• A general plan for prevention
• Programs for training
• Steps to take for health monitoring

2. Taking a Risk Assessment

If there is a chance of getting hurt or being exposed to blood or other potentially infectious materials at work, the risks must be assessed in every area and situation.

3. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

These steps must be taken right away and made standard in the hospital if the risk assessment shows that being close to patient blood raises the risk of getting an infection:

• Implementing new processes can help you avoid using sharp or pointed instruments unnecessarily
• Set up and follow safe procedures for handling and disposing of contaminated waste and sharp medical instruments
• With immediate effect, it is illegal to put protective recap needles
• Provide needle safety devices with integrated safety and protection mechanisms
• Use strong sharps containers and disposal bins for used needles, cannulas, and other medical supplies
• Personal protective equipment (like masks, gloves, gowns, and so on) must be worn
• Make appropriate vaccinations available to employees

4. Engineering Controls

Using engineering controls like blunt-tip cannulas and needleless systems can help get rid of the need for regular sharps, which lowers the risk of getting hurt by a needle.

Like needleless systems, there are other ways to give medicines and do procedures without using needles.

There are times when blunt-tip cannulas are safer to use in medicine.

5. Sharps Disposal Protocols

To stop needle stick injuries, it is important to have clear rules about how to get rid of sharps containers and dirty medical waste.

Healthcare facilities need to make sure that the bins for sharp objects are easy to get to and are emptied on a regular basis.

Proper disposal protocols reduce the risk of accidental sharps exposure, resulting in a safer environment for healthcare employees.

In conclusion, How to prevent needle stick injury?

Needle stick injuries must be avoided at all costs for the safety of healthcare employees.

Needle stick injuries are much less likely to happen if providers use needle safety devices, practice safe handling techniques, wear personal protective equipment, throw away needles right away, and learn how to do these things.

To keep healthcare employees safe on the job and from getting hurt, it is important to follow the rules and procedures for risk assessment, PPE, engineering controls, and getting rid of sharps.

FAQs

What is the protocol for needle stick injury?

Once a healthcare worker has been stabbed, they need to go to the emergency care right away.

The wound needs to be cleaned and the area where the needle stuck must be rinsed well with saline or water.

Most of the time, you do not need to wash the area with antiseptic.

What is the biggest cause of needlestick injury?

Most needlestick injuries happen while the device is being used or after it has been used but before it is thrown away. Some common reasons why workers get hurt because of bad practices at work are:

• Health care workers passing sharps to each other
• Moving the sharps to a different place
• Recap needles

Who is at the highest risk for needlestick injury?

Nurses are especially at risk because they get stuck with needles the most. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that using safer medical devices can stop between 62 to 88% of sharps injuries.