Pricked with a dirty needle

mudd68 · Oct 2, 2009

I stuck myself with a used insulin needle as well, several years back. The policy at my hospital is to immediately get a sample of the pt's blood (the pt has to give consent). The clinic may also want to test your blood (titer levels,etc). The nurse who I saw said I shouldn't worry too much b/c an insulin needle has a very small bore and probably doesn't hold enough blood to cause an infectious process after one exposure. Plus, the instant you feel the poke you pull away, again, lessening your chance of exposure of your blood with any that might be on the needle. All of the blood tests came out fine and I hope yours do as well.

jessiern, BSN, RN · Oct 2, 2009

A patient actually sneezed as I gave them an insulin injection. I got started and jerked, and had to go through all the testing. Research I read at the time showed it to be almost impossible to contract anything from a needle so small.

Just last week, a patient slapped my hand after an IM injection. Missed jabbing my very pregnant belly by a hair. He's probably the only patient in my career that I have told off.

jdub3 · Oct 2, 2009

I wasn't pricked but, I had been working on some metal parts at home and had cut my fingers and scrapped them up pretty good. Well we were doing an Artic Sun on a patient that had a massive MI... He was out and I was rushed in as a new orientee to "assist.." Well the physician decided to do a venous cut down precedure, the charge nurse decided I should assist the physician by restraining the patients hand and arm. I was currently ungloved and had no idea we were about to bleed like crazy. I was a newbie and didn't have a clue what the doc was trying to do.... So I keep thinking gloves, gloves, gloves, but the doc is saying, don't move, don't move, don't move. The next thing I know is we are going into the vein, ok, I get it... He bleeds all over my hands, I continue to restrain the patients hands... as soon as I flushed the line I hit the hand sanitizer and all I feel is burning. Ohhh Sh*t!!!!! I forgot... I scrub up real good and go to my supervisor, she sends me to the ER. I had blood drawn and the infection control physician came in to talk to me. He said you have almost 0% chance of contracting anything...? So I wait and get the call that I am Hep C and HIV neg and the patient was Hep C and HIV neg.. The IC doc actually advised against drug therapy... The patient was found basically on the street and was a homeless alcoholic. That had alot to do with me freaking out and was a heck of a newbie learning experience.

susanthomas1954 · Oct 2, 2009

Opposite: I am a Hep B carrier and stuck myself as I was injecting into an IV line. I could have infected the patient! Managed to shut off the line and hang all new tubing, etc., but the patient was so sick and debilitated I reported it anyway. He was tested, but died before the test results came back. It wasn't anything I did, as he died within about ten hours of when the incident happened, but it scared the bejesus outta me.

ST

NessaNurse · Oct 2, 2009

Oh my JessieRN that is scary! What was that patient thinking!? If they were with it that was a nasty thing for the patient to do, especially while you were pregnant!

Whispera, MSN, RN · Oct 2, 2009

Remember that you need to get tested again, in the future, to makes sure nothing has developed. Disease screenings don't show positives immediately after a person has been infected!

Jewl · Oct 3, 2009

Whispera said:
Remember that you need to get tested again, in the future, to makes sure nothing has developed. Disease screenings don't show positives immediately after a person has been infected!

I know, that's why they are testing the patient too.

Thanks though.

Jewl · Oct 3, 2009

mudd68 said:
I stuck myself with a used insulin needle as well, several years back. The policy at my hospital is to immediately get a sample of the pt's blood (the pt has to give consent). The clinic may also want to test your blood (titer levels,etc). The nurse who I saw said I shouldn't worry too much b/c an insulin needle has a very small bore and probably doesn't hold enough blood to cause an infectious process after one exposure. Plus, the instant you feel the poke you pull away, again, lessening your chance of exposure of your blood with any that might be on the needle. All of the blood tests came out fine and I hope yours do as well.

Thanks for sharing!

DeLana_RN, BSN, RN · Oct 3, 2009

I got stuck with a lidocaine needle I had used on a dialysis pt. The pt consented to testing and I started taking anti-HIV drugs until his test result came back negative after a few days. Like pp I was told that the risk of infection was low with a sub-Q needle, but since dialysis pts are at high risk for hepatitis and HIV I wasn't taking any chances!

DeLana

Sonia,RN · Oct 3, 2009

Several nurses and one resident I know at our facility have been stuck with HIV-positive ABG needles in the last year, which have a much higher rate of transmission than insulin needles, and fortunately they were all ok, though they did go through the obvious freakout and drug therapy stage. I myself have stuck myself twice in my nursing career, once an insulin needle and once an ABG needle. It's a horrible feeling but the chances are very small. Both times the patient was a little old man, HIV and Hep C negative. I was lucky.

I am sure you will be ok given the circumstances

Sonia

diane227, LPN, RN · Oct 4, 2009

I have been stuck twice by a needle contaminated with blood from patients who were HIV positive. You just follow the exposure protocol. This was before HIV drugs. We followed the protocol for testing. All was negative. I did have gloves on and that is probably why I stuck myself. I have a very hard time starting an IV with gloves on (But I do it anyway) because I am more afraid of getting Hep B.