What should I do if I am exposed?
- Wash your hands immediately after any exposure to blood or body fluids, even if you wear gloves.
- If you get splashed in the eyes, nose, or mouth, flush with water.
- If you are pricked by a needle (needlestick), contact your doctor right away for further advice.
What should you do if you are exposed to blood?
Wash exposed skin, cuts, and needlestick injuries thoroughly with soap and water. If you have been splashed by potentially infectious fluids around the eyes, nose or mouth, flush the area with water. Immediately report the incident to emergency medical services.
What should you do if you are exposed to bloodborne pathogens?
What should you do if you’re exposed?
- Wash needlesticks and cuts with soap and water.
- Flush splashes to nose, mouth, or skin with water.
- Irrigate eyes with clean water, saline, or sterile wash.
- Report all exposures promptly to ensure that you receive appropriate followup care.
What steps do you take if you are contaminated through a sharp injury needle stick injury or a splash of blood or other body fluid?
Flush out mouth, nose, or skin with water. Irrigate eyes with water, saline, or sterile irrigants. Report the incident to your supervisor. Immediately seek medical treatment at the nearest ER or treatment facility.
Do needle sticks bleed?
Generally, needlestick injuries cause only minor visible trauma or bleeding, however, even in the absence of bleeding the risk of viral infection remains.
Which of the following should be done first after a needle stick or sharps injury?
If you experience a needlestick or sharps injury or an exposure to patient blood or other body fluid when working, follow these steps: Wash needlesticks and cuts with soap and water. Flush splashes to the nose, mouth, or skin with water. Irrigate eyes with clean water, saline, or sterile irrigants.
When should you report a bloodborne pathogen exposure?
The OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard requires medical follow-up for workers who have an exposure incident. Exposures should be reported within 1 hour if possible to allow for prompt intervention to reduce the risk of infection.
What happens when a healthcare worker exposes a patient to a bloodborne pathogen?
All patients and health care workers who have been potentially exposed to bloodborne pathogens should be strongly counseled to seek testing so they may benefit from medical management. Health care workers should also seek screening for bloodborne diseases per CDC recommendations as part of their own health care.
How would you deal with a sharp injury?
What is a sharps injury?
- Encourage the wound to gently bleed, ideally holding it under running water.
- Wash the wound using running water and plenty of soap.
- Don’t scrub the wound while you are washing it.
- Don’t suck the wound.
- Dry the wound and cover it with a waterproof plaster or dressing.
What steps should a healthcare worker take if they have had a sharps injury?
Take reasonable care and follow these steps:
- Wash the area gently with soap and running tap water as soon as possible.
- Apply an antiseptic and a clean dressing.
- Obtain prompt medical advice from your local doctor or hospital emergency department, preferably within 24 hours.
- Dispose of the needle safely.
How can you reduce the risk of a sharps injury?
Steps for remaining ‘sharps safe’ are summarised below.
- Avoid leaving sharps lying around,
- Avoid re-sheathing any used needles/razors,
- Do not bend/break needles before discarding them,
- Place contaminated sharps/razors in disposal containers approved to BS 7320:1990, immediately after use,
How common is needle stick injury?
Needlesticks are a common occurrence in the health care profession. It is estimated that 600 000 to 800 000 needlestick injuries occur per year in the United States [1]. Of these, many, if not most, go unreported [2].
Do needlestick injuries need to be reported?
Sharps Injuries: Completing the Injury Report
If you sustain a sharps injury, it is very important to report the injury to your employer and to file an injury report. The objective of an injury report is to receive immediate post exposure care and to learn from incidents.
WHO report on needle stick injury?
If you sustain a needlestick injury, take the following actions immediately: • Wash the wound with soap and water. Alert your supervisor and initiate the injury reporting system used in your workplace. Identify the source patient, who should be tested for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C infections.
Can you get Covid from a needle stick?
Although there appears to be a theoretical risk of transmission of infection through blood, it is still extremely low due to low volume of blood in needle stick injuries compared to the well-known respiratory route.
How does needle stick injury prevent and treat needle stick injury?
Preventing needle-stick injuries is the best way to protect yourself: Use safety syringes with a sharps injury protection (SIP) feature as recommended by WHO. WHO recommends that health care workers and others who may be exposed to blood and blood products through their work should be vaccinated against hepatitis B.
What is exposure report?
But don’t delay medical treatment to fill out any paperwork. Complete an exposure incident report, which includes the following: A description of circumstances of the how the exposure occurred, including the route of transmission, the time, the date, and the place.
Why is it important to immediately report an exposure incident?
Exposure incidents should be reported immediately to the employer since they can lead to infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other bloodborne pathogens.
Can any medical instrument be considered a sharp?
Any type of sharp medical instrument that comes into contact with blood or other body fluids is considered a sharp. This includes any hypodermic needle, syringes with the needles attached, lancets and scalpel blades.
What should a post exposure evaluation include?
The post-exposure follow-up must include counseling the worker about the possible implications of the exposure and his or her infection status, including the results and interpretation of all tests and how to protect personal contacts.
What are the most common health care reasons for accidental exposure?
Accidental exposures to bodily fluids present a wide variety of issues to healthcare workers. These issues include transmission of communicable diseases such as human immune deficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV).
What is the most common way that healthcare workers are exposed to bloodborne pathogens?
Health care workers are potentially exposed to these diseases in one of two ways: A percutaneous injury in which a health care worker is injured by a sharps object. A mucocutaneous exposure incident with contact of a mucous membrane or non-intact skin with blood, tissue, or other potentially infectious bodily fluids.
What do I do if I accidentally poked a used needle?
What should I do if I injure myself with a used needle?
- encourage the wound to bleed, ideally by holding it under running water.
- wash the wound using running water and plenty of soap.
- do not scrub the wound while you’re washing it.
- do not suck the wound.
- dry the wound and cover it with a waterproof plaster or dressing.
Do you squeeze a sharps injury?
Do not squeeze or rub the injury site. If blood or blood products make contact with eyes, rinse the eyes gently but thoroughly (remove contact lenses), for at least 30 seconds, with water or normal saline.
How many steps are in sharps injury protocol?
There are 5 steps to a sharps risk assessment, these are: Identify the hazards. Decide who might be harmed and how.
…
- Step 1 – Identify the hazards. …
- Step 2 – Decide who might be harmed and how. …
- Step 3 – Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions.
What are considered safer sharps?
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) defines a safety-engineered sharp as a non-needle sharp or needle device with a built-in safety feature or mechanisms that effectively reduces the risk of an exposure incident.” Examples of safety-engineered sharps include: syringes with guards or sliding …
Do Gloves protect from needle stick injury?
Wearing gloves reduces the risk of injury by needles and sharp medical devices, or sharps injuries, by about 66 percent, according to a new study by Canadian and U.S. researchers. Double-gloving brought the risk down further, by about 80 percent.
What are 3 recommendations for prevention of needlestick injuries?
Eliminate the use of needle devices whenever safe and effective alternatives are available. Provide needle devices with safety features. Provide sharps containers for workers to bring into clients’ homes. Investigate all sharps-related injuries.
How long must a sharps injury log be maintained?
The sharps injury log should include all sharps injuries occurring in a calendar year and must be kept for five years following the end of the year to which it relates. The log must be kept in a manner the preserves the confidentiality of the affected individual.
What tests are done after a needlestick?
Laboratory studies in exposed individuals/health care worker include the following:
- Hepatitis B surface antibody.
- HIV testing at time of incident and again at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months.
- Hepatitis C antibody at time of incident and again at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks.
What should not be done after a needle stick injury?
For skin — if the skin is broken after a needle-stick or sharp instrument: Immediately wash the wound and surrounding skin with water and soap, and rinse. Do not scrub. Do not use antiseptics or skin washes (bleach, chlorine, alcohol, betadine).