Hep C exposure?

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Hi everyone. I'm in my first nursing job as an RN. Two days ago, I was checking the residual in the pt's g tube. After I locked the tube and pulled the syringe, a small amount of gastric secretions were splashed into my left arm. I immediately wash my arm with soap and water. I checked my skin and it was intact. I followed the protocol and reported to my charge nurse. She told that I should'nt be worried about it. My nursing knowledge regarding hep c also tells me that I should be ok, but I am the type of person who worries about these things. The pt btw is hep c positive. Should I be losing sleep over this????

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Specializes in Emergency.

i personally wouldn't be worried about it......but most hospitals require testing and report to the employee health dept. of any and all exposures, regardless of open or intact skin. i would look up your policy and follow those procedures. that way you are covered if a freak accident occurs.

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You really shouldn't lose sleep over this. However, this is coming from the nurse who always wonders if I somehow got blood in my eye and didn't feel it when removing and IV, emptying a JP drain, or drawing blood. Fill out an incident report and go to occupational health at least for your piece of mind. I don't know for sure, but I would think the chance of getting HCV from gastric fluid would be much lower than being exposed to HCV+ blood. I got splashed in the eye with chest tube drainage once, and occupational health told me that the chance of transmission through membranes in the eye is much lower than a needlestick. The patient turned out to be negative anyway.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

Gastric secretions are too acidic an environment for Hep C to survive. I wouldn't worry about it.

Now Hep A is a different story.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
Hi everyone. I'm in my first nursing job as an RN. Two days ago I was checking the residual in the pt's g tube. After I locked the tube and pulled the syringe, a small amount of gastric secretions were splashed into my left arm....The pt btw is hep c positive. Should I be losing sleep over this????[/quote']

No. Hepatitis C is a blood borne pathogen. It requires blood to blood contact to be transmitted.

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Specializes in Home Care, Primary care NP, QI, Nsg Adm.

Have a good nights sleep....zzzzzzzzzzzz.

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