Safety scalpels have been developed in response to a call for a better management of sharps in the healthcare industry and have been increasingly adopted under the (mis)conception of being “safe”. Here are some of the top reasons why you should avoid safety scalpels. Filmsy build quality and limited range of sizes and shapes Let’s …
Staff and Patient Safety: Reflection from Being Both as a Patient and a Doctor.
The afternoon light danced across the hospital quilt warming the room and I was comfortable. My husband nodded off to sleep in the chair beside me. The last 10 days had been a whirlwind. Last Friday I was an IVF patient. On Monday I had a simple gynae procedure to reevaluate IVF strategy. On Wednesday …
Top 5 Reasons You Should Invest In A Single-Handed Scalpel Blade Remover
You are the scrub nurse in the operating room for an open cholecystecomy to remove the gallstones causing the patients pain. The surgery went well, and the surgeon leaves the used scalpel blades in the passing tray after procedures because this is the right thing to do. There is no scalpel blade remover. It is …
Top 3 Negative Impacts from Not Using An Ampoule Opener
1 in 3 healthcare professionals suffer at least one ampoule injury in their lifetime from opening an ampoule. This is quite an alarming number if we take into account that in the US alone, 12 million healthcare employees would mean a whopping 4 million healthcare workers would have sustained an ampoule injury at work. A …
Reports from the Road – CE seminar Death of A Travelling Salesman Safety Education
As I travel around the USA giving talks on sharps safety, I am struck by the changes in perception on sharps injuries. Many of my CE seminar attendees comment that there is not only increased awareness of sharps safety, but also a willingness to be open about past injuries. Two years ago participants in the …
European Sharps Directive To Protect Healthcare Workers
Sharps directive is required to protect healthcare workers. In 2010, the European Council described sharps injuries as one of the most pertinent health and safety threats in European workplaces with an estimated 1 million injuries occurring each year. This startling number shows that sharps injuries in the healthcare industry are far more common than we …