Exposure to bloodborne pathogens is one of the most serious occupational hazards for healthcare workers. According to the World Health Organization’s report, “Preventing Needlestick Injuries Among Healthcare Workers, authors Susan Q. Wilburn, BSN, MPH, and Gerry Eijkemans, MD, note, “The healthcare workforce, 35 million people worldwide, represents 12 percent of the working population. The occupational health of this significant group has long been neglected both organizationally and by governments. The misconception exists that the healthcare industry is ‘clean‘ and without hazard, when in fact the chemical and bloodborne exposures encountered can be career- and life-ending.”
ICT turned to experts in the industry to see what tips they can offer infection preventionists to boost sharps safety in their facilities.
Jan Harris, MPH, BSDH, director of environmental health and safety at Sharps Compliance, Inc., emphasizes that even though it has been seven years since the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act was passed and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) updated its Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, compliance lapses are all too common.
“Sharps safety, just like many aspects of employee safety and health, still often comes down to following regulations instead of understanding the goals, objectives and reasons behind those regulations,” Harris says. “Supplying a variety of safety devices to be chosen based on the situation and educating the healthcare provider on selection encourages buy-in because the selection is solution-based, not just rules-based. Including employees in the selection of safety devices is required by the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard. This does not have to only mean a defined selection committee who performs an annual evaluation of sharps injuries. It should include methods for continued field evaluation. Gathering data throughout the year on difficulty of use, near misses, and work practices that do not work often mean more than actual sharps injury data collection at the end of the year.”
Harris advises that healthcare providers learn to engage in critical thinking skills that take compliance to a level beyond that of mere rule-following without understanding the imperatives of sharps injury avoidance.
“Situation-based education provides learners the ability to apply what they learn to real-life circumstances they encounter every day,” Harris explains. “Just like patients are encouraged to ask questions of their healthcare providers and become active participants in their own healthcare, the healthcare provider must be encouraged to think critically and ask why particular procedures or methods are done a certain way instead of simply doing things the way they’ve always been done. Learning should not be only about memorizing rules it should be about questioning those rules when they do not make sense. If education alone was all that was needed to prevent unsafe work practices, there would be very few accidents; since many of us have had bloodborne pathogens and sharps injury prevention training now for more than 20 years. The infection preventionist must find ways to engage the clinician to think ahead of the task they are about to perform; to believe that their safety is as important as the patient’s.”
