In an effort to both "talk the talk" and "walk the walk" when it comes to preventing sharps injuries in the OR, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses has unveiled a new Sharps Safety Tool Kit available free to members.
The tool kit, which you can download from the AORN website, contains PowerPoint presentations tailored to both OR staff and surgeons, posters, sample sharps safety and hands-free policies, sample product evaluation tools and other resources to help you implement policies and procedures that promote sharps safety in the OR.
In a discussion at the Annual AORN Congress in Philadelphia on Monday, representatives of the AORN Task Force on Sharps Safety from the surgical, nursing and surgical technologist communities presented data showing that, while great strides have been made in preventing needlesticks and other sharps injuries in the healthcare industry, the perioperative setting continues to lag behind. The most common sharps injuries involving surgeons, OR nurses and techs are caused by suture needles, scalpel blades and syringes. Karen Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, president of the American Nurses Association, shared her story of being infected with HIV and hepatitis C 12 years ago when she went to put a needle in an overstuffed sharps container and accidentally stuck herself.
Although devices like blunt-tip suture needles and sheathed scalpels, as well as practices like double-gloving and neutral-zone passing, have been shown to reduce the risk of injury, resistance to change has hindered their widespread adoption in the OR, said the panel.
Ramon Berguer, MD, chief of surgery at Contra Costa Medical Center, said trying to convince individual surgeons and surgical staff to change their practices is not an effective strategy. He recommends that every facility mandate an official OR sharps safety policy, implement a transition period and enforce the policy to ensure all team members are protected.
Irene Tsikitas
