Needlestick Injuries in Nursing Practice

This assignment delves into the critical topic of needlestick injuries among nurses. It examines the potential causes, associated risks such as bloodborne pathogen transmission (hepatitis B, C, HIV), and effective preventative strategies. The focus is on promoting safe nursing practices to minimize the incidence of these injuries and protect both nurses and patients.

Running head: NEEDLE STICK INJURIES IN NURSING
NEEDLE STICK INJURIES IN NURSING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NEEDLE STICK INJURIES IN NURSING
Issues and hazards at workplace are very common occurrences in the modern times.
One such issue evident in the nursing sectors is the issue of needle stick injuries. Needle stick
injuries generally refer to the wounds caused by the accidental needle punctures on the skin
(Himmelreich et al., 2013). These are known to be hazardous for the people who work with
the hypodermic syringes or other equipment that involve needles. These injuries generally
happen at any time while the concerned person uses, disassembles or disposes the needles.
These injuries refer to the penetration of the skin by a sharp object generally a needle. The
penetration generally takes place by the needles that have been in contact with the tissues,
blood or any other fluid of the body before being exposed to the environment. These injuries
majorly affect the health care workers (Seng et al, 2013). The other professionals that are
affected by these injuries are the tattoo artists, laborers, agricultural workers, preparers of
food and the enforcers of law. These injuries may be responsible for the transmission of
several blood-borne diseases that are infectious. Some of these diseases include human
immunodeficiency virus or HIV, hepatitis C or HCV and the hepatitis B or HBV (Wicker et
al, 2014). There have been recorded 25 different blood-borne viruses that have been caused in
the laboratory personnel and the health care professionals due to the injuries caused by the
needle sticks. According to the estimations, maximum occupational injuries caused by the
needle sticks are not reported as the physiological effects of these injuries are generally
negligible in degrees of their acuteness (Shalmani, Ranjbar & Alizadeh, 2013).
The following essay looks into the hazards that are faced due to the needle stick
injuries that take place in the hospitals and other such organizations that deal with the uses of
needles and syringes. The essay reflects on an incident of needle stick injury that took place
at a hospital in Saudi Arabia. The reflective essay then proceeds with the reflection and
explains the incident from the point of view of the nursing staff and facilities. The
composition then goes on to assess the incident using the Kolb’s reflective cycle, a model

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used in the study of nursing. A self-evaluation follows the above mentioned discussion. In
this self-evaluation is mentioned the precautionary measures or the methods that can be used
to avoid such situations in the future. The self-evaluation also brings to the limelight some of
the impacts that we had faced due to the occurrence. The essay finally concludes with some
recommendations as to how these types of incidents can be avoided in the future times.
There has been reported several cases of the needle stick injuries in the profession of
nursing. A six-month long study that had been carried out among the health-care workers in
the Maternity and Children’s Hospital, Najran, Saudi Arabia had revealed that these incidents
of needle stick injuries were a commonplace occurrence (Hashmi, Al Reesh & Indah, 2012).
The subjects of this study included all the health care workers who were involved with the
hospital. The group of study took into consideration even the resident, specialist and
consultant doctors, the nurses, the other allied staff related to the health care departments, the
people who were hired to take care of the disposal of the waste generated during the medical
procedures and the cleaning staff (Memish et al, 2013). The injuries that were taken into
account were the injuries caused due to the sharp needles like those that were used in the
pathology departments for collecting blood along with the hypodermic needles, suture
needles, the intravenous cannulas, the intravenous sets that used winged needles, the needles
that are used to connect the different parts of the intravenous delivery systems. This study
also took into consideration the injuries that were caused due to the scalpels (Who.int, 2017).
The members who took part in the survey were asked to asked to report to the Infection
Control Nurse on the timings of the occurrences of the incidents of the injuries.
An acquaintance of mine had been directly involved in one such case of needle stick
injury. She was an employee in the emergency department of the hospital. She had been
entrusted with the activity of collecting blood samples from a patient who had come in to get
tested for hepatitis B. She had already withdrawn the amount of blood that was needed as a

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sample for testing the patient. While sheathing the needle-tip after the collection, the needle
accidentally had penetrated the skin of the collector resulting in a needle stick injury in the
hospital. There has also been similar reporting of injuries by the nurses who are in charge of
the patients admitted in the hospital. A nurse had reported one such incident where she had
faced an injury while applying the intravenous saline syringe on a patient in the emergency
department. According to her, the needle had accidentally penetrated her fingers resulting in a
negligible amount of blood loss. A nurse who was posted in the ICU section of the
emergency department of the hospital had reported another such incident where the needle
that had penetrated her finger was meant for injecting intravenous medicines to the patient.
She was in a hurry as this injection had to be applied within a stipulated period of time
otherwise the patient would face severe consequences. She had to apply the medication
within the short window of time that was provided to her. She had accidentally inserted the
needle tip into her fingertip which resulted in blood loss of the concerned nurse. The patient
however had received the medication at the proper time.
The cases of needle stick injuries have also been reported by the cleaning staff of the
hospital. The workers who are involved in the disposal of the equipment that have been in use
in the various activities of the hospital, are not educated enough to know the various
conditions that may arise from the seemingly innocent needle stick injuries. The cleaning
staff members have often reported the incidents where they had to face these types of injuries.
These incidents are not generally reported thereby avoiding required treatment. One such
incident was faced by a worker while disposing off a syringe that was used to collect the
blood sample of a person who had been found to have responded positively to the test for
human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. According to him, the needle had accidentally
pierced in the peripheral vein of his left hand. The worker did not report of the injury as he
did not consider the incident to be dangerous. The worker did not even know that the needle

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had been in use for the collection of the blood sample of a patient who had come in to get
tested for HIV. The employee, on reporting the incident, had his blood-test conducted to
make sure that he had not been suffering from the disease. Staff had been hired to help in the
disposal of the used needles and other such disposable equipment that had been in use in the
operation theatre. One of those staff had reported to have got injured due to a scalpel. This
equipment had been used to operate on a lady who had been suffering from hepatitis B. The
cleaning person had been very stressed out on the fact that he might have contracted the
disease. He was relieved only when a test conducted on his blood sample revealed that he had
not contracted it.
The most common type of the injury caused by these sharp instruments are the sceptic
injuries. These may result when a deep needle wound is created and the injury reaches the
inner blood vessels. The concerned victim of the needle stick injury may contract diseases
that are caused by the blood borne viruses. These injuries may also occur in the emergency
department of the hospital or other nursing facilities and may prove to be fatal if not looked
into at the appropriate time. The equipment used in the nursing professions should be handled
carefully in order to avoid such injuries. These equipments mainly include the sharp needles
like those that were used in the emergency departments for collecting blood for the proper
diagnosis of the disease so as to provide the correct treatment to the patient. Apart from these,
the instruments also refer to the hypodermic needles, suture needles, the intravenous
cannulas, the intravenous sets that used winged needles, the needles that are used to connect
the different parts of the intravenous delivery systems (Leigh et al., 2017). The other
instruments that are considered to be involved in this menacing hazard are the scalpels and
other instruments that are used in the conduction of surgeries and in the pathological
laboratories. There may be cases of broken glass equipments that may cause contamination if
brought in contact with the blood of the sufferer. In all the above mentioned cases, it is seen

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that the conditions could be avoided if the victims would have been a bit more careful with
their own self. In case of the first incident, my acquaintance could have avoided the incident
if she had been a bit more careful while sheathing the needle after withdrawing the blood of
the lady who had come in for the test of hepatitis B. The accidental pricking of the needle tip
could have caused the infection caused the contamination of her blood thereby causing the
disease that is caused by the transfer of the virus. The nurse in the next case could have
prevented the injury had she been a bit more careful in the application of the intravenous
saline channel. The same may be advised in case of the other nurse who had been appointed
to inject the intravenous medication in case of the emergency patient who was admitted in the
ICU. The cleaning staff also must be made aware of such happenings. They should be careful
enough in their handling of the medical equipments that need to be disposed after usage
(Askarian et al., 2012). This generally refers to the needles that have been used to collect the
blood samples that needs to be examined for the detection of any disease that the patient is
doubted to have been suffering from. These needles may also be used to collect any other
bodily fluid and may be the apt medium through which the viruses and other disease causing
elements may gain entry into the body system of a healthy person.
The employees also have to keep a keen eye on the fact that broken equipment is got
rid of very carefully. These are also the potential sources through which blood contamination
is possible. If the broken piece of equipment had resulted in the blood loss of a patient
suffering from a blood borne disease, the person who is disposing the broken equipment
should take extra care so that he does not get hurt or have any cuts or other wounds from the
same. This may lead to him contracting the disease too. Extra care should be taken so as to
avoid injuries while cleaning and sterilizing the medical equipments that are used in the
surgical operations. These instruments include the instruments that either use needle tips or
require the attachment of a needle-tip in order to function properly. These instruments may

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also prove to be great carriers of the blood borne diseases if they come in contact of the blood
of the affected. In order to prevent such occurrences where the medical staff may contract the
disease, the hospital authorities have assured measures whereby the staff are provided with
the medications that prevent the staff from contracting diseases that may prove to be fatal in
the course of time. The medical staff who are in charge of the cleaning of these instruments
must be trained well enough as to how to handle these sharp instruments like the needles and
not injure themselves in the process. They should be advised to report any case of injuries
that occur due to these injuries. They should be provided with anti-viral medications in
advance so as to avoid contracting fatal diseases that may be caused due to the viruses that
get transferred through the injuries that involve the sharp objects such as the needles, scalpels
and other such instruments that are used in the profession of nursing. The medical staff that
are in charge of using these instruments must be careful enough to let the cleaning person
know if there are any items that should be disposed with extra precaution. They should
always make it a point to mention if there are any sharp instruments that may be the source of
a blood borne viral infection which may prove to be fatal in the course of time.
In order to evaluate the incident that had been faced by the acquaintance of mine
during the needle stick injury I have used the Kolb’s cycle of reflection. This model is based
on the many activities of reflection that has been undertaken in some professional contexts.
The practice of nursing has systems which are well-established. It also involves the processes
that encourage the matters of self-reflection. This process involves four different steps that
are interconnected with each other. These are the formation of a first-hand experience. This
step is followed by the reflection or the reviewing of the first-hand experience. The
conclusions and the learnings that have been drawn from the experience follow the
reflections of the observer. The learnings that have been acquired during the stage of

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conceptualization find their implications in this final stage of active experimentation. This
step is proceeded by the first step of forming an experience which needs to be reflected on.
The theory of the Kolb’s reflective cycle is a well-known learning theory that is used
majorly in the fields of learning. According to this theory, we get educated over the plethora
of experiences that we gain over the everyday incidents that occur through our life. This
theory also considers reflection to be an integral part of the process of learning. The first step
of the cycle deals with the experiences that we encounter during the course of our life. In this
incident of my acquaintance, the experience of the needle stick injury had been a tensing one.
The needle had just been used to draw blood from the vein of the patient who was suspected
to have been suffering from the dreadful disease of Hepatitis B. The careful sheathing of the
needle could have avoided the injury in the first place. She had been ignoring the vaccination
for the Hepatitis B. Thus, it is evident that she had been quite tensed when the needle which
had just penetrated by the veins of the lady who had come in for the test for the hepatitis B. In
case of the worker who had injured himself while disposing the needle used for drawing
blood from the patient who was suspected to have been suffering from the deadly disease of
HIV, the injury could have been avoided had the worker paid extra attention to the fact that
the needle had been sheathed properly.
On looking back at the incident of the needle prick injury of the acquaintance of mine,
it may be said that the carelessness on her part that had been responsible for the injury. The
injury caused a feeling of trauma in the mind of the nurse as she had not been taking her
vaccinations at the proper time and thus, had been vulnerable to contracting the disease very
easily. She had to take immediate vaccinations in order to prevent the condition of
contracting the disease. The experience had been very traumatic for the collector herself. She
had been very tensed until the time that her blood test reports had revealed that she had not
contracted the disease. The experience had been an incident that served as a lesson for the

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other employees in the same department. The other employees were seen to have grown more
aware about the vaccinations that they were supposed to have. They started to have their
regular health checkups done just in time. This was a highly needed measure that needed to
be employed. The cleaning member had been under stress for a longer than usual period after
he had come to know of the fact that the needle that had pierced the peripheral vein of the
posterior side of his left palm was used to collect the blood sample of a patient who was
suspected to have been suffering from the medical condition that was caused by the human
immunodeficiency syndrome or HIV. He had been stressed ever since he had come to know
of the fact. He had not thought that the accidental injury caused by a needle prick could be
serious enough to cause complicated health issues. Thus, he had never reported the injury. He
was not educated enough to know of the hazards that might occur due to the needle stick
injuries that are seemingly innocent. Thus he underwent a huge amount of stress till the time
his pathology results were out. The stress that he had been facing was released only when he
tested negative for the disease of HIV (Green & Griffiths, 2013).
According to Kolb, we are able to create a hypothesis based on the situation or the
incident that we have gone through in our lives. In this stage, we conclude on the facts that
we have learned from the experiences that have been acquired from the instances that we
have gone through. My acquaintance had learned a huge lesson to be more careful in her
handling of sharp instruments such as needles that are mostly used in the pathology and
emergency departments. She had learned that these needles that were used in the emergency
departments should be handled carefully enough to avoid the transmission of the disease-
causing agents. According to the Infection Control Nurse, the maximum number of the
injuries that have been incurred in the emergency department have been a reason for the
concerned staff to get stressed for a long period of time. The staff should be made more
aware of the after-effects of the needle-stick injuries. It must also be brought to the limelight

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that medical equipment such as sharps, scalpels and the other various medical instruments
that are used in the surgeries should also be handled with care. The cleaning staff must also
be made aware of the fact that the needles should be handled with extreme care so as to avoid
incidents that involve the contraction of a blood borne disease in the victim.
The last stage of the Kolb’s reflective model deals with the stage where the hypothesis
formed in the previous stage is experimented upon. The experiences that are acquired from
these stage help to decide whether or not is the hypothesis acceptable.in the concerned case,
the hypothesis refers to the theoretical condition of training the staff regarding the hazards
that might have their roots in the needle stick injuries that are seemingly innocent. There may
arise situations whereby the delay in the reporting of the injury may result in the medical
complications to arise in a patient. These medical conditions may have been avoided if the
injury had been treated in a proper way at the proper time. In the concerned case of the
acquaintance of mine, she had reported the injury at the first chance to do so thereby it was
easier for the nursing staff to detect the presence of the concerned virus that might have
gained entry into her blood stream through the needle stick injury that she had incurred. The
cleaning staff, on the other hand had no knowledge of the needle that had been used in
drawing blood from the lady who had come in to get treated for HIV. The low levels of
education of the employee had led him to stress more over the fact that he had contracted the
disease.
In order to avoid these situations, the concerned staff must be conscious enough to
report the slightest of injuries that they have undergone while working with the sharp needles
or the other equipment that may result in injuries involving blood loss. The staff at the
pathology center should be trained enough to know the hazardous conditions that may result
from the seemingly innocent needle stick injuries (Bhardwaj et al., 2014). The staff
responsible for the disposal of the used pathological and surgical instruments should receive

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more training on the conditions that may arise if they get infected from an injury that results
in blood loss. They should be asked to report to the concerned authorities as soon as possible
regarding the injury if they encounter any. These incidents may be avoided if the nurses and
the sample collectors who work with sharp needles are more careful in the use of these
instruments. The nurses should not hurry while sheathing a needle or while injecting an
intravenous medicine into the system of the patient. They should always be more careful and
cautious in the handling of such equipment thereby leading to the reduction of such injuries.
They should be vaccinated at regular intervals of time so as to avoid any kind of fatal injuries
(Cdc.gov, 2017). The hospital authorities should look into the fact the staff that has been
appointed for the job of disposing the instruments that have been used at the pathology center
or the at the operation theatre, should be well-trained on the issue of the hazards of the
injuries that may be caused due to accidental hurts that are resulted due to the improper
handling of these equipments. My feelings in this context do not vary from the one who has
experienced the incident of a first-hand basis. I can very well relate to the stress that they face
due to the risk of them having contracted the blood borne diseases that may have been present
in the patient.
In order to avoid these incidents, the hospital authorities should commence a blood
borne pathogen control program that fulfils all the requirements of the standard blood borne
pathogen indexes (Osha.gov, 2017). The usage of needles should be avoided in conditions
where there are effective and safe alternative methods available (Bhargava et al., 2013). The
authorities should provide the staff with the needled devices that have certain safety features.
The authorities should provide the staff with containers to store the sharps (Rohde et al,
2013). All the cases of the injuries should be investigated thoroughly in order to get to the
main cause of the problem thereby attempting to address the cause at the very root levels of
it. The authorities should make sure that the concerned medical staff is provided with the

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necessary medical treatment and evaluated properly on receiving the report of any such
incident. The staff who handle these instruments must avoid the use of these wherever they
may avail alternate instruments. The staff should avoid bending or recapping the needles that
might be contaminated. The employees must look into the fact that the needles are handled
safely and got rid of in a safer way in order to avoid the conditions of contracting any fatal
disease. The staff must follow the standard precautionary measures, the preventive measures
that should be undertaken to avoid the spread of infections and other general practices of
general hygiene on a constant basis in order to avoid the hazards of these injuries. In order to
gather more information about the hazardous situations that may arise due to these types of
injuries, the employee must participate in the training programs that are arranged by the
concerned authorities.
In conclusion to the above discussion it might be said that the needle stick injuries
must be reported at the earliest possible timings in order to reduce the fatality of the disease if
contracted by the concerned staff. The nurses and other staff that deal with these instruments
must make it a point to help the authorities to select the devices that are safe to be used. The
staff must report any cases of injuries that they might be facing while working with the
instruments like the needled instruments or other sharp instruments that may enhance the
risks of contracting a blood borne disease. An employee should wash the area of injury
immediately with soap and water on experiencing a needle stick injury. They are advised to
flush the affected area with water. The incident should be reported on an emergency basis and
the concerned person should be granted access to immediate medical treatment in order to
avoid further complications in the conditions.

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