Docs and their dirty sharps...

Specialties Emergency

Published

Just curious to see if your docs routinely clean up their sharps after inserting central lines and chest tubes?

I never really gave it much thought until one of our newer docs kind of looked at me funny when I thanked him for clearing his sharps from his used central line kit and he remarked, "I'm a big boy, I can clean up my own mess." Most of the other docs just leave everything at bedside for the nurse to clean up,i.e., dig through all the bloody sharps, and I've become so used to automatically doing it that I really didn't give it a second thought. But since that doc made that comment, I find myself getting irritated now when I have to clean up after the others; its not the cleaning up, its the digging for the dirty sharps, the putting myself at risk for a stick, just because I'm the nurse.

So have the docs in my ER gotten into a bad habit or do they all do this?

I think it's all a matter of culture change and education. The best teaching method? The betadine-blood visual. They just need to know that their slovenly ways can kill somebody. Get your manager involved in making any recalcitrant docs toe the line. It's a new era - the era of nurses being strong enough to not take the BS any more.

I remember a few months ago ... I was still quite new, and was assisting an attending with a central line placement. She has a tendency to be harsh and demanding on the new kids, so I was trying do do everything right. When she finished, I reached over to start cleaning things up (I'm also a little OCD about cleanliness in my rooms!). She shook her head at me and said, "Nope. That's our job. And you let me know if any of those residents don't think so."

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I just want you to know that this is a TOTALLY 180 degree difference from what things used to be like. Older docs would no more think it was their job to put sharps away safely than they would think it was their job to even put their own bloody gloves anywhere but on the heap of other dirty supplies, or their own bloody gowns anywhere but on the floor.

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