Needle Sticks Injuries Essay

Needle sticks injuries (NSIs) are one of common injuries in the hospitals and medical place. NSIs commonly occur during needle recapping, drawing blood, administering an intravenous drug, performing other procedures involving sharp injuries (SI), passed needles between personnel, needles penetrate the glove and skin of the during surgery, place needles in an overfilled or poorly located sharps container and failure to use appropriate personal protective equipment (1-5). In the recent years, NSIs is one of the most important threats that mention in health workers (HCWs) (6). A major concern about percutaneous exposure incidents (PEIs) such as NSIs and SI are Blood borne infections (BBIs) (6-9). Based on report center for disease control and prevention(CDC) in the United States, each year 600000 to 800000 cases of NSIs occur among HCWs (6, 9-11). US

healthcare professionals reported to 384,825 NSIs were occurring that 23% of these injuries occur during surgery (12, 13) based on report European Biosafety Network the annually 1 million NSIs injuries occurred in Europe (14). In another report performed by The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2007, rates of global NSIs injuries affect about 2 million individuals per year (14). Within the medical field specialties differ in regard to the risk of NSIs, thus surgery, anesthesia, ENT, internal medicine and dermatology tend to show relatively high and radiology and pediatrics relatively low rates of injury (15). Among HCWs nurses and physicians are the most common groups who face NSIs injuries (16-19).

All Nurses are performing invasive procedures with PEIs that are of greatest concern and happens most dangerous because they may transferring bacteria, protozoa, viruses and prions (20), transmit blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis B and C viruses and HIV (13, 21). Long working hours and not having enough sleep during the night shift also put practitioners at risk for needle stick injuries (1). The needle can slip and injure the healthcare worker (1, 3-5). These injuries can lead to significant stress and anxiety for HCWs and their families (6). Unfortunately, it is evaluated that half of all NSIs go unreported (12, 21). NSIs cure in any environment where sharps are encountered poses a risk (2, 22). Based on report published by The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000, NSIs was responsibility Incidence 66,000 hepatitis B, 16,000 hepatitis C, and 1,000 HIV infections (12, 13, 23). The important of factors affected on needle stick Injuries including hollow-bore needle, deep penetration and visible blood on the needle (24,

25).
The costs of treating an injury include treatment of an acquired infection, blood testing and lost time at work (12). Treatment of a NSIs is costly, estimated to be between $376-$2,456 in the United States (13, 26). Different studies showed that by spending much lower costs for hospital hygiene and education of HCWs can be largely avoided incidence of NSIs (27-31). The condition of the patient, used safety instrument, the type of hospital and ward can be associated with NSIs (14, 32, 33). Reduce the risk of NSIs can include reduction of use of sharps device, using useful safety box, training of appropriate resources, using instruments to grasp needles, load scalpels, avoiding hand-to-hand passing of sharp instruments, decrease direct contact with needles and disposal greatly (2, 13, 33).