At the Infection Prevention Society’s annual conference, held in Bournemouth, the risk of infection posed by sharps injury was high on the agenda. While many healthcare workers are aware of the standard precautions they should be taking, in order to prevent the risk of blood borne infections, ensuring consistent adherence with prevention measures remains a serious challenge.
Dr Jayne Cutter, a lecturer from The College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, presented the results of a survey of six Welsh NHS Trusts which highlighted some of the important factors associated with adverse exposure to blood and body fluids among theatre staff.
“With the exception of not passing sharps from hand to hand, very few respondents consistently used standard precautions, as they should, in theatre. They admitted making judgements based on factors such as the nationality, sexuality and suspected lifestyle of the patient, before deciding what level of threat they posed to staff in terms of infection risk. This ultimately influenced their decisions on what precautions they used,” Jayne Cutter explained.
“This is not in the spirit of standard precautions... We have to assess whether the way that we are providing education is truly effective. People who have been qualified for shorter periods of time actually complied better with standard precautions than those who had been qualified for longer,” she commented.
Martin Roff, Health and Safety Laboratory (part of the Health and Safety Executive), also reported on the latest research into the use of bench-activated needle protectors. He revealed that, although bench-activated devices are highly effective at reducing the risk of infection posed by needlestick injury, some types of devices may inadvertently present another risk through “spatter hazard”.
“We may be curing one problem, but introducing another,” he warned. “Therefore, users need to be made aware that needle protectors can cause spills and that needle fragments may escape.”
