FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2000

CONTACT:
Hope Hall, 202-651-7027
Michelle Nawar, 202-651-7122
rn=realnews@ana.org
www.nursingworld.org/rnrealnews

Washington, D.C. - The American Nurses Association (ANA) has joined with the University of Vermont to offer a teleconference on preventing needlestick injuries on May 12, 1:30-3:30 p.m. EST. The teleconference is designed to educate nurses and others in the health care industry about the problem of needlestick injuries and how they can protect themselves from this hazard. ANA is sponsoring this as part of its Safe Needles Save Lives campaign and as a service to nurses during National Nurses Week, May 6-12.

Recently the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a compliance directive for its bloodborne pathogen standard requiring hospitals to use safer needle devices. In addition, five states (CA, MD, NJ, TN, TX) have passed needlestick prevention legislation. As strong advocates for both the compliance directive and legislation, ANA will offer this teleconference to educate, instruct, and empower health care workers on the use of safer needle devices.

Every year RNs and other health care workers sustain 600,000 to one million needlestick and sharps injuries – resulting in at least 1,000 new cases of health care workers with HIV, hepatitis C, or hepatitis B. The technology exists to protect health care workers from needlesticks, yet less than 15 percent of U.S. hospitals use safer needle devices, such as retractable needles.

"Health care professionals face the risk of needlestick injury every day," said ANA President Mary Foley, MS, RN. "We know these injuries are preventable; yet, not enough is being done to prevent them. The key to reducing this type of injury is through eliminating unnecessary sharps and utilizing safer needle devices. Health care workers need to be aware of existing devices, know how to use them, and be involved in the selection of these devices."

In addition to the teleconference, ANA and the Training for the Development of Innovative Control Technologies (TDICT) project, which aims to educate health care agencies and health care workers in sharps injury prevention, will present six one-day Needlestick Injury Prevention Workshops in May and June. The workshops will provide a hands-on opportunity to evaluate the newest needlestick devices designed to prevent injuries. Product testing and simulated practice in the actual use of these products will be key features of the workshops.

"I can enthusiastically recommend the TDICT content since I received my own training using their technique and served as a clinical consultant," exclaimed Foley.

Teleconference and workshop topics will include the epidemiology of injuries and strategies for prevention, an update of federal government research and education, regulatory efforts designed to assist in the implementation of effective exposure control programs and criteria for evaluation and selection of safer needle devices. The teleconference will also feature a case study of The Greenville Hospital System(GHS) in Greenville, SC. Key leaders involved in creating and implementing the needlestick prevention program at Greenville will share experiences, lessons learned and outcomes of their ongoing work.

The teleconference will feature national experts, including ANA President Mary Foley, MS, RN; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Director Linda Rosenstock, MD, MPH; Campaign for Health Care Worker Safety founder Lynda Arnold, RN; Massachusetts Nurses Association President Karen Daley, MPH, RN; TDICT Director June M. Fisher, MD; International Healthcare Worker Safety Center Director Janine Jagger, MPH, PhD; Premier Safety Institute Director Gina Pugliese, MS, RN; occupational health nurse practitioner Katherine Twitchell, MS, RN, CS; and ANA Occupational Safety and Health Specialist Susan Wilburn, MPH, RN. Fisher and Wilburn will conduct the workshops. The teleconference will offer 2.4 continuing education contact hours, and the workshops will offer 7.8 contact hours. (revised 3/22/00)

"Regardless of experience or practice setting, all health care workers are at risk. Health care workers must work together to protect themselves and others from the preventable risk of needlestick injuries, and the potentially life-threatening infections that may result," said Foley.

ANA has been advocating for the use of safer devices and protections for health care workers since the 1980s. The ANA Safe Needles Save Lives campaign encompasses all of ANA's work on this issue by advancing its agenda through education, workplace advocacy, collective bargaining and federal and state legislation.

Funded with an unrestricted grant from BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a manufacturer of safe needle devices, the teleconference will be broadcast at sites throughout North America via satellite, video conferencing and the Internet. The one-day workshops will be held in different cities from across the United States. For locations and more information about the teleconference and workshops, call Lora Phillips at (800) 639-3188 or contact UVM at (800) 639-3188. Information will soon be available by http://www.uvm.edu/~dceweb/profprog/healthCare/teleconferences/index.html and http://www.needlestick.org/.

# # #

ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.6 million registered nurses through its 53 constituent associations. ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

2000 press releases

Other past press releases: 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996

SEARCH	FEEDBACK	JOIN ANA	BOOKSTORE	ONLINE CE	HOME
NursingInsiderNursingMall
© 2002 The American Nurses Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved