I Just Had A Needle Stick Injury (No Blood)

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What to do when you get a needlestick injury?

Hi, I'm actually new on this site and I had been feeling weary and scared cuz of what happened to me earlier. I had accidentally pricked myself with a used needle when I was trying to get the needle from the syringe. I was actually pulling it and forgot to twist it. I didn't ask for assistance and I just decided to do it quickly. So I tried to pull out the needle but instead pulled the cap off and my hand retracted cuz of the force I applied and then, yes, I got struck by the needle on my middle finger.

I was doing aftercare from assisting in delivery and brought all the instruments to the sink for rinsing and soaking and needed to throw the needle and syringe away accordingly. All the other Nursing Staff and my Clinical teacher were busy and I ( a student nurse by the way) did some of the aftercare like the instruments and the syringe used for anesthesia... So my question is, will I get infected or sick if I got pricked by a used needle (through my glove, but there was no blood, only a red point on my finger? If so, what should I do?

I'm really scared and I don't really know what to do and I'm even more scared to tell anyone else about this.

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Did you report it? Even if there's no blood, you still got a needlestick. I had one, no blood but a tiny pinprick, but I was still required to report it. Both pt and myself had to be tested for HIV and Hep B. Yes, the chances are very remote of anything happening, but it still needs to be reported. Also, when cleaning up afte a procedure, put the sharps straight in the sharps drop immediately instead of bringing them to the sink for sorting and disposal, and you don't remove the needle from the syringe for disposal. Hope everything works out okay and good luck in your program! It's an exciting and crazy time but getting your degree is worth it!

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Tell your teacher and see occupational health, your probably fine but this is the proper procedure to follow when you have a needed stick.

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You must inform the appropriate personnel at your school ASAP, like your instructor. Do it this morning. Make sure you review safe needle handling (not only don't we separate needles from syringes before disposal but this was also a recapped dirty needle - another thing to avoid when at all possible). However, right now the most important thing is to not let fear keep you from doing the next correct step.

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What they said , also our hospital has a strict policy that physicians (and other staff) clean up their own mess and dispose of their own sharps because only they know for sure how many needles and other sharps they used. But, I didn't learn about this myself until the first (and last) time I cleaned up for a doc who did a central line and my preceptor saw me doing it and explained why we don't.. I would definitely report it though.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Yes please report it.

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Report all needle sticks

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Thank you for your comments and insight. Yes, I'll report this to my CI and get tested... Altho I'm still scared of what happened and hopefully everything is fine and nothing worse will happen.

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I have reported it already to my CI and Thank God my patient was negative of Hep B, C and HIV.. But I still need to get tested. I asked my CI about my injury site and she said that it wasn't really serious (cuz my injury site looks so faint as if it wasn't pierced). Atleast I have relief and some assurance of knowing it's not so bad. But still, I'll get myself tested

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Specializes in hospice, LTC, public health, occupational health.

Am I missing something? Why in the world would anyone try to remove a used needle from a syringe? You just throw the whole thing in the sharps, because handling used needles too much is exactly how things like this happen.

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Of course it's not best practice, but yes I've seen this nonsense of separating needles and syringes. Why you ask ? Because someone is being cheap about sharps bins !

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Go straight to Occupational Health so they can start testing you every 3-6 mos or whatever. They'll have a protocol. Hopefully your glove sort of helped 'clean' it a little on the way in. Just go and report it.

Gel88, don't mess around with needles just throw the whole thing away from now on. NEVER RECAP either. 

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