1 in 3 nurses suffer needle injuries

MORE than one third of nurses in Ireland have experienced a needlestick injury, putting themselves at risk of potentially fatal infections such as hepatitis and HIV.

A study published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) also found 70% of nurses know a colleague who suffered such an injury.

INMO director of professional development, Annette Kennedy, said nurses who experienced a needlestick injury were afraid to go public because of the stigma. She was speaking at the INMO/European Biosafety Network conference held to highlight the risk of sharps’ injuries among healthcare workers.

A nurse was due to speak at the conference about her needlestick injury but pulled out at the last minute for personal reasons.

Ms Kennedy said she had approached four nurses to speak about their experiences but all declined.

“We have to end this silent epidemic. It is one of the most serious and common injuries to affect all healthcare workers, both in Europe and throughout the world.”

She pointed out there were between 900 and 1,000 needlestick injuries every year across the Irish healthcare sector and almost half were nurses.

Since the end of last year, occupational health physicians have been contributing to a national database on needlestick injuries.

Ms Kennedy said there had been no change in the average incidence of needlestick injuries over the past seven years. “If we had been doing something right, those figures should have gone down.”

The injuries were preventable by providing effective training, safer working procedures and safely engineered medical devices that shield or retract the needle after use, she said.

She pointed out that Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin, experienced a marked reduction in needlestick injuries after it introduced safety cannulaes and training in 2003.

Needlestick injuries at the hospital plummeted from 129 between 2001 and 2003 to a single case, two-and-a-half years later.

INMO president Sheila Dickson called on Ireland and governments across Europe to implement the EU Sharps Directive, which sets up an integrated approach to assessing and preventing risks and to training and informing health workers about these risks. Each EU state is required to bring in legislation to implement the directive by May 11, 2013.