Posted on May 29: Don’t Rush, Pay Attention and Stay Calm to Avoid Needlestick Injuries
McMaster's David Fisman, along with researchers from Canada and the United States, has found that health-care workers who are rushed, distracted, or angry are more likely to be injured by sharps, the needles, scalpels and other devices used in patient care.
Every year, there are between 400,000 and 800,000 sharp-related injuries to health-care workers. Due to hazards from hepatitis and HIV, these minor injuries can set off an expensive chain of events that only adds to the health care burden facing doctors and hospitals.
In the study published in the current issue of The American Journal of Medicine, Fisman points out that “Distractions were often trivial in nature, an observation supported by the finding that emergency situations did not increase the risk of sharps-related injuries. Anger was most often associated with conflict with another employee or with a patient.”
Fisman, Associate Medical Officer of Health for the City of Hamilton and Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University, collaborated with Anthony Harris from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Gary Sorock from the Liberty Mutual Research Center for Safety and Health, and Murray Mittleman from the Harvard Medical School to author the study, which is reported in “Sharps-Related Injuries in Health Care Workers: A Case-Crossover Study”.
Subjects were 139 health care workers employed at the in Baltimore, Maryland or at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
Participating subjects were interviewed to assess rushing, distraction, anger, fatigue, performance of a task in an emergency situation, and teaching. For workers outside of an operating room, factors such as repeated attempts to perform procedures, staffing shortages, and the presence of an uncooperative patient were also evaluated.
In an accompanying editorial in the Journal, David Oldach, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Maryland Medicine, recalls the teachings of celebrated Canadian physician Sir William Osler, who in 1889 recommended aequanimitas imperturbable calmness in the face of conflict and suffering as the pinnacle of medical professionalism.
Oldach observes that maintaining aequanimitas in the face of ever-present distraction and overloaded schedules (particularly in this age of multitasking) is a consistent challenge. He believes that it is an issue that all health-care workers need to think about and address in training programs.
Fisman agrees with Oldach's assessment. He explains that the evidence gathered from the study “suggests that worker education on the importance of not disturbing colleagues working with sharp devices, and on the importance of 'cooling off' after an interpersonal conflict before attempting a procedure could help to prevent future sharps-related injuries.”
