www.AmericanNurseToday.com January 2016 American Nurse Today 7

•Lessons learned from EPINet

Editor’s note: This article is the last in a three-part seriesbrought to you in partnership with the InternationalSafety Center. The earlier articles (“Preventing needle-stick and sharps injuries” and “Preventing blood andbody fluid splashes and splatters”) are available atamericannursetoday.com/preventing-needlestick-sharps-injuries and americannursetoday.com/blood-body-fluid-splashes.

A TOOL that surveys and measures occupational ex-posures to blood and body fluids, the Exposure Pre-

vention Information Network (EPINet®) helps identifywhere infectious exposures are occurring in U.S. hos-pitals and lets you compare them with what’s happen-ing in your facility. The International Safety Center dis-tributes EPINet for free to hospitals and healthcarefacilities to measure exposures that can cause illnessand infection in the working population.

Most prevalent injuriesThe first article in this series focused on needlestickand sharps injuries. This article takes another look atthese injuries because they’re the most prevalent typeof occupational exposure to blood and body fluids. Ofall injuries collected by EPINet aggregate hospitals inthe 5-year period from 2009 to 2013, 50.6% stemmedfrom devices used to inject a fluid into the skin and53% stemmed from disposable syringes.

When did the injury from the disposable syringe occur?n During usen After use and before disposal

nWhile recappingnWhile putting device into disposal container

n Between steps of a multistep procedure

n During device disassembly

n Device left on floor, table, or bed

n Other**Includes sudden patient movement, device protruding from sharps container,and device withdrawal from stopper

Was the disposable syringe a safety design?n Yesn Non Unknown

Was the safety mechanism activated?n Yes, fullyn Yes, partiallyn Non Unknown

If the safety mechanism was activated, when did the injury occur?n Before activationn During activationn After activationn Unknown

Preventing injuries fromdisposable syringes By Amber Hogan Mitchell, DrPH, MPH, CPH, and Ginger B. Parker, MBA

Practice Matters

36.1%

5.4%

2.9%

26.9%

15.3%

5.4%

3.1%4.9%

84.9%

2.0%13.1%

28.2%

0.2%

62.2%

9.4%

50.8%

36.0%

12.8%0.4%

8 American Nurse Today Volume 11, Number 1 www.AmericanNurseToday.com

Protecting yourself and othersNow that you know the facts, you can take steps to help eliminate injuriesfrom disposable syringes and encourage your employer to take action.

Consider:Surprisingly, in-juries still occur

when safety syringesare used, either duringor after the mecha-nism has been

activated.

Take action:If you don’t know howto use a device, ask for

training. If the device isn’teasy or intuitive to use, informyour employer that you want to participate in device evalua-tion so the devices that bestmeet your own and your

patients’ needs arechosen.

InnovationNurses are creative, resourceful innovators. You can directly and positively affect your own life and the lives ofyour patients and colleagues. If you don’t consider yourself an innovator, look to those you think are. Use suchresources as “Nurses leading through innovation” at http://goo.gl/MS03fj.

The authors work at the International Safety Center (InternationalSafetyCenter.org). Amber Hogan Mitchell is president and executive director. Ginger B. Parker is vicepresident and chief information officer.

Take action:Activate safetymechanisms on

syringes immediatelyafter use. Know ifthe needle retracts,

slides, orsnaps.

Consider:Nearly 85% of in-

juries from disposablesyringes result from useof devices with a safetymechanism, but 62.2% ofthose injuries occurredwhen the safety fea-ture wasn’t acti-

vated.

Take action:Ditch the pinch.

Determine if the nee-dle is the proper lengthfor the injection so youdon’t put your otherhand at risk and alter

your technique.

Consider:Nurses are injur-ing themselves

while manually elevat-ing or pinching the pa-tient’s skin for insulinand other subcuta-

neous injec-tions.

Take action:Be mindful of those

around you when givingan injection. Let othersknow you’re performing an injection. Activate thesafety feature and disposeof the device immedi-

ately in a sharps container.

Consider:While almost

90% of injuries oc-curred in nurses usingdisposable syringes,10.6% occurred to

someone nearby whowasn’t the original

device user.

Consider:Injuries canhappen whendevices are leftwhere theyshouldn’t

be.

Take action:After giving an injection,

activate the safety feature andimmediately place the syringe ina sharps container. If a sharps

container isn’t within reach, informyour manager of the need to evalu-

ate for better placement. If asharps container is overfilled, letthe manager know immediate-

ly, as sharps protrudingfrom a container can

cause injuries.