Managing the risk of needlestick injuries may help prevent serious injury. Using safety devices, wearing gloves, avoiding unnecessary use, and providing proper training can help.
Needlestick injuries are a potential hazard in a healthcare setting. You may be at risk of a needlestick injury if you use sharps or work with people who use sharps, or if you handle sharps during disposal.
Even if you don’t regularly work with sharps, you may still come across sharps in a healthcare setting.
It’s important to take the necessary precautions to minimize the risk of injury as much as possible.
Read on to learn about ways to help prevent needlestick injuries. This article also looks at what to do in the event of a needlestick injury.
Using safety devices where possible is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of needlestick injuries.
Examples of safer needle devices include:
- blunt fill needles, which can provide an alternative to conventional needles
- retractable needles, where the needle retracts into the syringe
- self-sheathing needles, which have a shield that slides over the needle and locks in place
- eclipse needles, which have an attached safety mechanism that locks over the needle
- add-on devices, such as hinged or sliding shields that you can attach to the needle
- safer transfer devices for lab specimen collection
When using a needle, it’s important to practice safe handling to help minimize the risk of injury.
USC Environmental Health & Safety recommends the following best practices for handling needles:
- Keep the sharp end of the needle away from your body, making sure both of your hands are behind the plane of the needle.
- Slowly pull back the plunger to extract the required volume.
- Don’t apply excess pressure on the plunger, as this can cause the needle to break off.
- After use, immediately dispose of the needle in the correct sharps container.
- Don’t recap the needle.
Although wearing gloves won’t remove the chance of needlestick injury completely, it can help reduce the risk.
There’s some evidence to suggest that double gloving, or wearing one pair of gloves on top of another, may provide improved protection against needlestick injuries.
However, it’s still possible for the needle to break through two pairs of gloves, so it’s still important to take additional precautions when handling sharps.
One way to reduce the likelihood of needlestick injury is to only use needles when absolutely necessary.
If using a needle is essential for the treatment or procedure, it’s important to carry out a risk assessment and practice safe needle handling and disposal.
Disposing of needles safely after use can help prevent needlestick injuries during disposal and collection.
Each healthcare setting or business will have its own guidelines for proper sharps disposal. Some general tips include:
- placing needles in the correct containers, such as
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) -approved containers in the United States and British Standard BS 7320:1990 containers in the United Kingdom - making sure the lid of the sharps container is properly closed
- immediately disposing of sharps after use rather than leaving them lying around
- not re-sheathing the needle before disposing of it
- placing a damaged sharps container inside a larger sharps container
- not retrieving anything from the sharps container
- storing sharps containers in a secure area
Providing adequate workplace training is essential, and this should include the safe use and disposal of sharps where applicable.
Training will differ depending on the specific needs of the healthcare setting or business, but it may cover areas like:
- how to use sharps and other equipment safely
- how to dispose of sharps safely
- how to wear any personal protective equipment correctly
- what to do if a needlestick injury occurs
Needlestick injuries
- HIV
- hepatitis B
- hepatitis C
Although needlestick injuries occur frequently in healthcare settings, a 2022 review of data from January 2000 to May 2020 found that the number of needlestick injuries is decreasing. This could be because of the use of safer devices and better handling and disposal practices.
Each business or healthcare setting will have its own guidelines on first aid if a needlestick injury happens.
In general, if you experience a needlestick injury, you should wash the wound with soap and water straight away. You should then dry it and cover it with a plaster or dressing.
Then, inform your supervisor or manager about the incident. They can advise on the next steps, which may include testing for HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B infections.
»Learn more about first aid for needlestick injuries.
Using safety devices can help prevent needlestick injuries. These can include blunt fill needles, retractable needles, self-sheathing needles, and needles with shields.
Handling the needle safely and wearing gloves can also help. After use, you should dispose of the needle immediately in the correct sharps disposal container.
Adequate workplace training is essential for providing guidance on the proper handling of needles, how to dispose of them correctly, and what to do if a needlestick injury occurs.
