Nursing hazards, how much of a risk is there of contracting something?

[michelle_d]

Hi again. I've posted a few things here, mostly asking random questions about nursing as a career, since I'm considering it. I thought of another one that someone might have some time to answer.

I'm probably ignorant, but what is the real risk of contracting a disease from a patient as a nurse? I've heard of accidentally sticking yourself with a needle, forgetting to put a mask on, etc. I'm just a naturally paranoid person, so it's something that does worry me from time to time.

[Rise Against]

I beleive we as nurses are alot more able to contract something whether is be tb, aids, flu, hep, h1n1, mrsa, herpes (airborne). But you cant let that stop you because you are supposed to be trained in contact, airborne and droplet precautions. But just be safe when handling fluids or sharps. But the sad thing is that you dont know what the person has until maybe a couple to many days later (if they dont have a history) after you have been touching them like a regular patient.

[GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN]

I've had a few exposures during 22 years, a few needle sticks,(before safety needles ) chemo exposure, once had a really gross exposure where someone explosively ruptured their membranes I got it in my eyes and mouth, soooo gross, ( it actually hit the wall across from their bed) and I was standing at the head of the bed, next to the pt-- that was the worse one.(oh yeh, I was pregnant at the time- how lovely) When I went to occup health, the nurse made me feel better. She told me a nurse was once standing near a pt and the resident was inserting an IJ and hit an artery, the blood squirted out and into her MOUTH!! oh and the pt was HIV+ !!, she said she nearly had to pick her off the floor she was so freaked out and ended up being ok. I/ve never contracted anything, not to freak you out but crazy things do occas happen, most of the time things are ok. I think the stats are pretty low for contracting things, but there are risks we take.

[Scrubby]

Some areas of nursing are far more hazardous than others. It depends on the number of sharps your handling. In the OR we handle more sharps than any other specialty area in nursing and there is so many different things that may penetrate your skin such as bone fragments, sharp instruments, scalpel bldes and suture needles. We are also exposed to more bodily fluids as well. Unfortunately many of these things cannot be replaced by safety devices either. I've had about 5 sharps injuries in 4 years.

I did an assignment on this recently and this article I found interesting on the seroconversion rates (both articles are the first in the search results:

http://search.who.int/search?ie=utf8&site=default_collection&client=WHO&proxystylesheet=WHO&output=xml_no_dtd&oe=utf8&q=Sharps+injuries&Search=Search&sitesearch=

http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?queryText=Sharps+injuries+and+seroconversion&searchButton.x=0&searchButton.y=0&action=search

[pednursedeb]

I don't have the stories that some of the other's have. I have been a nurse for over 20 years and have never caught anything. I use precautions as I'm taught. As someone else said you do get exposed to things before you know what the patient has, but so far my luck has held. I think if you are going to be a nurse you have to be worried enough to take precautions, standard, droplet, contact or whatever. I don't think you can be too freaked out about it that that's all you think about though.

Good luck

[RNperdiem, RN]

Risk cannot be eliminated entirely, but it can be reduced.

Most of our patients do not have anything contagious.

[michelle_d]

Thanks guys! I guess I was mostly worried about contracting HIV through a needlestick or something. I read about needlestick accidents online and I got freaked out.