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With widespread adoption of safer sharps in hospitals, needlesticks declined by more than half for some of the most hazardous devices. Safety has become the norm in phlebotomy. Needle devices are placed in sharps containers instead of being left on bed linens or carts, where someone else may be stuck.
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Medical residents aren't the only hospital employees suffering from fatigue.
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During last year's H1N1 influenza pandemic, health care workers inadvertently transmitted flu to their co-workers, in some cases triggering a hospital-based outbreak. That and other information about H1N1 transmission helped shape new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that rely on vaccination, respiratory hygiene, and monitoring of ill employees by employee health professionals.
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Karen Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, remembers the stick as if it happened in slow-motion, the details still clear to her 12 years later. She had helped a co-worker draw blood from a patient in the emergency department. She turned to reach behind her for the sharps container. Mounted high on the wall, it was overfilled, but she couldn't see it well because it was above eye level.
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Meeting with key stakeholders and sterilization groups, the Joint Commission is nearing a landmark consensus position on the long-confusing issue of "flash" sterilization. With various groups already offering slightly differing definitions and interpretations, the Joint Commission tried to clarify its stance last year with a position statement that apparently caused as much confusion as it allayed.
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Like a hurricane downgraded to a tropical depression, H1N1 influenza A has lost its pandemic status and is now just another troublesome flu bug, the World Health Organization reports.
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A hospital employee tests positive on a tuberculin skin test. Should you retest with a blood test to confirm that? An employee tests positive on a TB blood test but works in a low-risk area and has had no known exposures. Should you recommend treatment for latent TB infection?
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Federal health authorities are taking the first tentative steps toward considering a recommendation on mandatory influenza immunization of health care workers.
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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health offers the following recommendations for employers and employees to prevent bloodborne pathogen exposures among paramedics and other emergency workers:
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If you want employees to comply with sharps safety, then their supervisors have to require it. That is a strong message that emerged from a survey of paramedics related to bloodborne pathogen exposures.
