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CDC offers guidance for sharps-related injury education and training

Nurse Leader Weekly, June 4, 2004

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year 385,000 needlesticks and other sharps-related injuries are sustained by hospital-based healthcare personnel; an average of 1,000 sharps injuries per day. Nurses, who make up hospitals largest employee population, have the highest rate of these injuries, according to the CDC.

Although these injuries can occur anywhere within the healthcare environment, data show that the majority occur on inpatient units, particularly medical floors and intensive care units, and in operating rooms. The CDC says 80% of all sharps-related injuries can be tracked to six devices: disposable syringes, suture needles, winged-steel needles, scalpel blades, intravenous (IV) catheter stylets, and phlebotomy needles. 
 
To help hospitals deal with this problem, the CDC has published a workbook entitled, Designing, Implementing and Evaluating a Sharps Injury Prevention Program. It can be downloaded from the CDC Web site.

The workbook is a resource to help organizations assess their sharps injury prevention program, document their planning and prevention activities, and assess the effectiveness of those programs. In addition, it offers the following content suggestions for orientation or annual training on sharps injury prevention:

1. A description of injuries reported by the facility's personnel
* Number of sharps injuries reported in the last year or several years
* Occupations, devices, and procedures involved
* The most common ways injuries occur in the facility

2. Information on the hierarchy of controls and how this concept is applied in the facility
* Strategies to reduce or eliminate the use of needles (e.g., needle-free IV delivery systems)
* Devices with engineered sharps injury prevention features that have been considered and/or used in the facility
* Introduction of other engineering controls (e.g., rigid sharps disposal containers)
* Work practices that can be used to reduce injury risks
* The availability of personal protective equipment to reduce injury risks (e.g., Kevlar gloves for surgery and autopsy, leather gloves for maintenance personnel)
 
3. Administrative activities designed to decrease sharps injuries
* Development of a sharps injury prevention team
* Changes or improvements in exposure reporting procedures
* Safety culture initiatives

Source: Workbook for Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Sharps Injury Prevention Program on the CDC Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/sharpssafety/index.html.

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