I am new to this forum and I just posted about medication errors. I had to ask everyone about needlestick safety. As a new nurse I was stuck with a dirty needle left in a bed. I am now vigilent about about needle safety and always use the needle-protective device if it is availiable. But I am so surprised by the number of nurses I see not activating the needle safety devices. Do you all always use the devices and what do you think of them?
Sorry to hear that you got stuck.. I have to play Mom here and ask if you followed up on the injury. Incident report and appropriate testing.
I work with 15 gauge needles so I am pretty darn careful..LOLL
I don't like many of the safety thingys out there as it seems they are hard to manuveur (sp)..
WR,,, three commas for Becca
I try to use the safety devices expecially when starting IV's maybe not as much as giving IVP. The only time I have been stuck was recapping a clean insulin syringe..the needle came right through the cap and adding pit to a hanging IV bag (after placenta delivery)I was holding the port and the needle came through the side of the bag so I had to get a whole new bag anyway. I always throw my needle away the only time luckily I've ever seen any not thrown away I knew where they were (anthesia left them in the tray for me to clean up) or one left on a table when someone missed an IV and asked me to go look and they've left theirs on the table with the safety device on.
I found the best safety device is a good nurse. Many needle sticks I have seen are from needles in beds or I V needles left on tables or carts after IV was started. Here we have gone almost to a complete needless system. Our IV needles self cover after extracting from the insite. I know of two nurses who have hep-c here from needle sticks. enforce safety on your units. Any body that has a slack attitude to needle safety does not need to be in nursing.
I am such a hard but.
I can't stand people who say, "Lifes' too short". Well hell, LIFE is the longest thing we do.
I try to use the safety device. Some are easier to use than others. When JCAHO inspected a hospital I worked at 2 years ago we were told that they sometimes opened sharps containers to make sure we were following protocol of using the needle-protection devices. I don't think they did though.
the best safety device is no needles at all- get blunt cannula access devices and hound your hospital until they switch out- there should be ZERO IV pushes done with needles. Only needles should be for starting IVs and drawing bloods pretty much- and they should all have caps/retractable needles- and be disposed of diligently - and promptly.
Even CPR isnt reason enough to risk your own life- the 2 seconds it takes to dispose of sharps gives you a lifetime of helping others.
Let's not forget the ever popular IM and SQ that have to be given with that needle cause the blunt cannula really hurts when you try to give an IM with it
Here we use the clave needless system. Only use needles to draw up meds. Our IM inj. have retractable needles. Our IV catheter in an Introcan Safety the has a device that covers the needle when you pull it out of the catheter. Only needles we have exposed is the TB and insulin needles. Our needle sticks have dropped to 3 in the last 6 months. I still say that a safe nurse is the best defense against needle sticks.
Our IV's are the retractable ones with a spring but that can still not work if you don't push the button to retract the needle. I've seen nurses pull the needle out (like inthose old wash tub days LOL) then when they get done taping the IV push the button on the needle that's been laying there on the bed, to retract the needle. We tried the one with the cover but we had lots of uncooridanted people. They also messed up lots of the spring one. For the IM's we have a thing that slides over the needle. The butterfly for lab is a pain in the butt as the cover is kind of flimsy. Our TB syringe does have a cover also but not the insulin ones
WASH TUB DAYS????? LOLLLLL
WR,,, three commas for Becca
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