Preventing needlesticks

To prevent life-threatening needlesticks, registered nurses not only need to educate their peers about this occupational health hazard, but also be intimately involved in evaluating and choosing safer, needle-less systems in their health care facilities.

That was the message carried through cyberspace to RNs and other health care workers who participated in a May 12 satellite conference sponsored by ANA and the University of Vermont.

"Nurses need to be informed about what equipment is out there and learn to differentiate the best devices," said ANA President Mary Foley, MS, RN. ANA sponsored the conference as part of its ongoing needlestick prevention campaign, "Safe Needles, Save Lives."

Statistics show that between 600,000 and 800,000 needlesticks occur each year, and research has shown that many go unreported.

The question of reporting -- or not --crossed the mind of Massachusetts Nurses Association President Karen Daley, MPH, RN, who accidentally was stuck by a needle from an unsafe sharps container and now is HIV and hepatitis C positive.

Both Daley and Lynda Arnold, RN, who is HIV positive, told their stories and drove home the point that both their sticks could have been prevented had their health care facilities employed safer sharps devices.

"Putting the money up front in prevention is where it's at," Arnold said.

Nurses at nearly 200 sites nationwide had the opportunity to view the interactive teleconference and ask questions of four expert panelists, Susan Wilburn, MPH, RN, Gina Pugliese, MS, RN, Katherine Twitchell, MS, RN, CS, and June M. Fisher, MD.

Discussions included research on needlestick injuries and bloodborne pathogens, treatment protocols, a review of safer needle devices on the market and legislative and regulatory efforts. Twitchell also reported on the needlestick protocol at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

For information on needlestick prevention, go to: http://www.needlestick.org/. To purchase a video of the conference, call UVM at (800) 639-3188. ANA will not provide contact hours for the video.