Sharps Safety

For as long as there have been sharp medical devices and instruments, healthcare workers have been injuring themselves. But it wasn’t until 1981 that the healthcare community started learning about the extent of these injuries through the efforts of Dennis Maki, MD, and Rita McCormick, RN, CIC, of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals, who were poised to publish the very ...

My son had a special friend in kindergarten whom neither of us will ever forget. Little D was the sweetest boy — so cute and full of life. He was the baby of the three children in his family, and named after his daddy, Big D.The reason I will always remember Little D isn’t because the boys — at the ...

Every year between 600,000 and 800,000 people are the victims of needlestick injuries in U.S. hospitals, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). These numbers are daunting, but the stories behind the numbers are far more troubling. Lisa Black, RN, MS, PhD, never thought she’d be one of the statistics. At the time of her injury ...

Early man fashioned sharp instruments from flint and stone. Today, these implements are obsolete. Is the same thing happening with safety syringes? Following passage of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, manufacturers responded with product modifications to meet regulatory requirements. Seven years later, these retro-fitted devices dominate the market. Yet a closer look at the situation raises questions about whether ...

In this Q&A interview, Gregory Schears, MD, a pediatric intensivist and board-certified anesthesiologist practicing at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., discusses data from his recent study on catheter securement and implications for infection prevention and control, including a comparison of securing peripheral IVs via tape vs. StatLock, a catheter stabilization device. Schears found that the manufactured stabilization device ...