The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the risks and challenges that healthcare workers face every day. This includes injuries, infections, violence, and avoidable safety-related incidents. Due to the stressful environment that these workers struggle with, they are more prone to errors which can lead to patient harm. The World Health Organisation’s World Patient Safety Day (WPSD) …
The Danger of Misconception Regarding the Risks of Ampoule Cuts
Needle-stick and sharps injuries (NSI) are a commonly reoccurring issue in healthcare workplaces. Without adequate protection, healthcare professionals face many multifaceted threats to their safety. In 2018, it was reported that 90.3% of nurses sustained at least one NSI over a six month period. Of these injuries, ampoules are frequently reported to be the primary …
Translating Safety into Practice: Sharps Safety Example
En español In the last blog, we talked about investing in healthcare worker safety has proven long-term benefits, and how organisations can start investing in their worker’s safety. In this blog, we take a deeper look at translating safety into practice, using sharps safety as an example. Healthcare is a complex system, and implementing sharps …
Is Your Sharps Safety Program Effective?
There is always the risk that a sharps injury will lead to a blood-borne infection and other consequences. Because of this, workplaces which use sharps such as scalpels and needles (including hospitals, aged care facilities, aesthetician clinics) need to make sure that a sharps safety program is in place. To make sure that your sharps …
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Spooky Stories from Healthcare Workers
It’s been said that life is stranger than fiction, and is more spooky too. In celebration of Halloween, we’ve collected the spookiest stories that healthcare workers have shared about the creepy things that have happened while on shift. THE BABY MUMMY: I was working in Africa and the usually very stoic Congolese surgeons called …
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Some Quick Statistics on Sharps Injuries
Here are some quick stats regarding sharps injuries in the healthcare industry – hospitals, clinics, and facilities. Scalpel cuts are the second most common injury in the operating theatres, accounting for 7% of the total number of reported injuries. Risks from the scalpel cuts have been documented including infection by HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, …
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