Positive exposure?

[ncook7]

I'm a newer nurse, I work in a skilled facility. In this facility it's my job to flush all iv's whether they are PICC's, midlines, etc., upon starting to flush a patients iv I noticed that firstly it was a new type of iv lock that I have never seen before, I later found that is is called a y-type. Long story short, I moved the iv lock to gain better access to the port and something splashed my face, it landed in 5-6 spots on my face( 1 on my lip) I finished what I was doing and exiting the room(planing to go wash my lip) I was then stopped and inform that this patient was a known drug abuser and definitely has hep c and probably HIV. When I then had to flush this patients iv again to hook up the antibiotic I noticed that the y-type iv must have cracked from the clamp because when pushing saline a drop comes from the tubing. I notified our iv team and followed our procedure for possible exposure. Although my DON dosent believe that this was a posive exposure, I don't honestly trust her opinion because she didnt know ampicillin was in the pcn family.Note: there wasn't blood in the tubing when I got exposed. Should I be worried, do I need to follow up with a series of blood tests? Opinions are appreciated.

[jkr2020788]

I would follow up, but only to give yourself a sense of really knowing. As long as you didn't get the fluid in any open cuts, you should be okay. The only possible place to transmit would be orally or through ocular contact( low incidence) if not through an open wound.