Are unusual occurrence reports bad?!?

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2007

Incident reports should be intended to result in process improvement. If enough nurses are getting cut on ampules, then management needs to improve the process in some way to reduce the incidence of this type of injury. So no, I don't think incident reports are "bad".

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2007

no, these reports are not bad. when i was a nurse manager, one of my jobs was being a member of the hospital safety committee. one of the things the committee did was review every single incident report that was written in the hospital. these reports are written by every department and not just the nursing service. let me tell you a little bit about what happens to an incident report that many may not know.

when an incident was made out for any reason (technically, they were to be made out for any unusual occurrence) they were given to the manager of the employees department. the manager was to then do an investigation of the incident, verify that the facts were correct and to make sure that all information on the report was as complete as it could be. we also had to add on the back of the report if we felt that the incident was due to the fault of the employee and if we felt there was a way the accident or incident could have been avoided. when these reports were reviewed by the safety committee this part (fault and reason the incident happened) were discussed. this is how equipment gets replaced and updated or facility policies and procedures get changed. the safety committee also made regular reports to the executive committee of the hospital on the types and trends of the incident reports. sometimes the committee would recommend that a particular employee be required to attend certain kinds of remedial training--particularly where back injuries happened with the lifting of patients. however, there were also times when equipment was taken out of service because it was just too risky and dangerous for employees to be using or something better had come on the market.

so, please don't think of these reports as having a negative implication because that is not always true. things do happen that are just purely accidental. then again, some employees are careless. the breaking of a glass ampoule that slashes your fingers is something that needs to be known by the facility. there are other ways that these drugs can be packaged and be much safer to open and the people higher up in the facility need to be aware that the glass can shatter like that and cause injury. their liability carrier (insurance company) may, as well, require them to make a change in the supplier of the drug to avoid potential worker comp issues in the future. make sure you take good care of your injured thumb and that it is healing ok. if you have any signs of an infection follow up with the facility about it immediately since this is a worker's comp issue.

i imagine that one of the reasons glass bottles are no longer used for most iv solutions has to do with breakage. very early in my career i picked up an iv bottle and was carrying it by it's metal hanger when the glass totally slipped out of it, fell to the floor and shattered spilling not only all kinds of glass shards on the floor, but 1000ccs of 5% dextrose that made for a very sticky floor. that doesn't happen with today's plastic bags.

kukukajoo, LPN · Dec 5, 2007

I hope you are okay and heal quickly.

I dont see this as being bad for you. Any place that has ampules has had people cut opening them- they are dangerous but necessary until some new technology can come along and replace them.

One thing I learned from a nurse who did suffer bad laceration from ampules is use both gauze and a pack or two of the alchol preps as they are foil lined and thicker. Still makes me nervous every time I have to open one!