I attempted to open an ampule with no succes, so I rotated it and tried again. I had my alcohol wipe in package around it to "protect" me from the glass. I know that ampules are scored in a certain spot so they will break, and break clean at that. Well, it broke on the second attempt. However, instead of breaking clean and flat it had a big old jagged sharp that sliced my thumb right open.
After bleeding for 55 minutes the house supervisor sent me to the ER. I ended up recieving 5 stiches on the side of my thumb, about 3/4 inch long. It spanned my thumb joint, so it ended up needing to be splinted. I missed 2 days of work because of the injury (I work 4 12's and then I am off for 10). The physician said I needed to keep my thumb dry and not use my hand since moving the other fingers in effect pulls some of the tendons/ligaments in the thumb and would cause the cut to dehisce (sp?) more.
First off, I filed all of the paperwork required by my facility and was not held financially liable for the medical bills which totalled $653.45 (in the ER they x-rayed my thumb to check for glass fragments that could be present). However, workman's comp in my state will not reimburse me for the days of work I missed because I wasn't out of work for 3 or more days. That's 24 hours of pay I missed out on! Since I'm part time that's half of my paycheck!
I'm mad. In nursing school I learned how to open ampules, we used alcohol wipes in their package and ampule breakers so we'd know how to do both. I figure I've opened around 30 ampules since I've been a nurse (3 years). When I got home I got out my old nursing book and reviewed the procedure of breaking an ampule to see if I had missed some step. Upon review I know my technique was textbook perfect.
At my first job, a large regional hospital of 350 beds we had plastic disposable ampule breakers. This is my second job with the same company but at a small community hospital of theirs. Often nurses here complain that since they are the small community hospital they don't have the same supplies, pharmacy staffing at night, diagnostic staffing on the weekends etc. At this hospital we do not have ampule breakers, we are to use the alcoholl wipe method.
I checked out the price of plastic ampule breakers online, I found them for less than 7 cents each. For 7 cents, this whole mess could have been avoided! 2 days of missed work, the pain in the butt that it was to keep my thumb dry and not use my hand, with a 18 month old to take care of at home could have been avoided. The $653.45 cents the company spent to treat my thumb should have been spent prior to my cut on preventing things like this from happening.
If I can buy a pack of 1000 ampule breakers on my own for 7 cents each Couldn't a large company with 13 hospitals have some bargening power on the price when buying in large quantities? Not very many drugs even come in ampules the only one's I've dealt with have been vit k and nubain.
Have you ever been sliced by an ampule? Do you know someone who has? How often does this happen?
Does your facility provide plastic ampule breakers?
I guess it must happen often enough that someone invented the plastic ampule breaker and was able to sell it to hospitals.
P.S. I checked CINAHL and MEDLINE databases for more info to try and get some hard core data to present to my manager. I wanted to help her see the need to make this small investment. All I found was info on spikes on ampules. In manufacturing the ampules sometimes the glass gets pulled while still hot and forms a glass spike that cools. A bunch of anesthesiologist journals had complaints and info on how often they've been cut by a spike and how often the spikes occur.
