Avoiding exposure to BBPs

More than 8 million healthcare workers in the U.S. risk exposure to bloodborne pathogens from needlesticks injuries and cuts from sharps.

Advance for Nurses magazine reports that six devices cause most of the injuries: disposable syringes (26 percent); suture needles (17 percent); winged steel needles (12 percent); scalpel blades (7 percent); IV catheter stylets (5 percent); and phlebotomy needles (3 percent).

Workers can avoid exposure with a combination of strategies that includes safer work practices, personal protective equipment, safety devices designed to prevent injury and contact with blood and management’s commitment to a culture of safety.

Organizations can select the best sharps safety devices and safely dispose of them to prevent injury. A culture of safety involves a commitment to remove hazards from the workplace and reporting all hazards in an effort to keep every employee safe.

Error reporting

Hospitals’ attempts to improve safety culture and increase error reporting often focus on hospital-wide formal error reporting processes. But a recent study by Medical Care assessed how the safety culture of individual hospital departments affected the reporting of treatment errors, Safety Share reports.

A questionnaire used in three hospitals among three medical departments – internal medicine, surgery and intensive reveals they were more willing to report treatment errors when they were instructed on safety procedures as they relate to their work and working conditions. They felt more secure in reporting errors when they perceived that safety training information was readily available.

There were also variations within departments. Internal medicine and surgery were more likely to report errors than those in intensive care because they more readily perceived the suitability of safety procedures to their culture.

The authors conclude that hospitals must realize the importance of employee perceptions regarding safety procedures and that these perceptions can vary significantly among departments, which influences the way they report medical errors.