Needle Stick, employer no protocol

[mixedchick78]

I had a needle stick today at 0645 and I have not been told about any policy regarding needle sticks. So I notified my supervisor who did not have to work today, and she told me to wait until the Office manager came in and fill out and hand to the office manager the incident report. I had to wait until 0900 until the office manager came in. I put the Incident report under her door and heard nothing from her she avoided me until about 1p. So when I finally caught up with her, I asked her the protocol for these incidents, she said " Oh well, it probably was a clean needle, I wouldn't worry about it. I mean you could go to a urgent care, but you would have to wait till the end of your shift. (which was 6p,) SO, they let me go at 530pm and told me to go to the urgent care.. I just worked 11.5 hours and I have to go to urgent care, so I called the urgent care to see how long it would be, and they told me it could be a 2 and a half hour wait...!!! This is ridiculous, can an employer get away with this????? Who do I contact about this.. This is soo frustrating! Please Help

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

What type of healthcare setting is this? Was it a dirty needle. What about the patient involved? Was the pt tested for HIV, Hep B, C, etc?

[lmccrn62, MSN, RN]

It probably falls under OSHA.

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

Wow. I am sorry you had to go through that. First off, any time you get a needle stick you can never assume it is a clean needle, so you did the right thing in pushing for answers. I find the fact that your employer doesn't have a policy to be completely unacceptable. FYI most needle stick related blood work is time sensitive in when it should be drawn post exposure, and the pt you were potentially exposed too should also be tested for blood borne pathogens. I hope you kept a copy of the bill from urgent care as your employer should be paying the bill