Accident

I would be so upset if I was poked by a dirty needle because someone was careless and left it sitting out. The possibility of disease transmission is low, but it could happen.

I was nurse #2 (well, corpsman coming behind a nurse) in this scenario during my military time. Of course, it's always the patient that just got back from Africa and is presenting with a ton of bizarre sx and we're drawing a bunch of labs to rule stuff out. The RN believed she'd counted her sharps from the tray (we'd done a few misc procedures on her beyond blood draws), and I went behind to clean it up and got stuck. Fortunately the patient was still there, and we were able to obtain a history and any other labs we needed (HIV, hep C, etc). No health issues for me, thankfully, but I'm definitely even more careful about sharps now!

Granted this was the military (though she was a civilian contractor), but I don't believe there was disciplinary action against her, at least not that I ever heard about. She was a retired Navy nurse who had come back as a civilian contractor, and was well-respected in the department. She was usually the one nitpicking (productively) our errors, so I was shocked when this happened, and it was definitely out of character for her.