Shocking story of the day

[blondy2061h]

We seem to have a little bit of a theme going on at allnurses with stories of horrible infection control breaches. I figured I would add my story into the mix.

Last night I was hanging out with one of my friends who is a nurse at a different hospital than I. I told her about how frustrated I was that I had stabbed myself with a clean needle drawing up a med on my last shift. She asked me if I gave the med in that syringe anyway. I looked at her like she had six heads and told her that of course I threw that out and started over. She told me that a nurse she works with did the same thing- BUT GAVE THE MED ANYWAY! She told me her reasoning was that she knew she was clean. My jaw nearly hit the floor.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

We're all needle free to give the med to the patient, but I've never seen any set up that lets you get a med out of a vial without a needle.

Spikes are used with vials for needle-free drawing up of the drug. However, we do still have ampules, which I think is ridiculous. In this day and age, we're still cracking open little glass containers?

[PMFB-RN, RN]

We're all needle free to give the med to the patient, but I've never seen any set up that lets you get a med out of a vial without a needle.

*** We have plastic needles for drawing from a vial. they are a little hard to get into the vial rubber top but I can't imagine breaking skin with one if we were to miss and hit a finger. The same plastic needles are used by neuro surn to test for sensation on their patients.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

they do exist, I tried finding pictures, sigh, dial up strikes again! they have existed for several years, I am thinking they are not cost effective for single use vials?

We're all needle free to give the med to the patient, but I've never seen any set up that lets you get a med out of a vial without a needle.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

I'm still stuck on the fact that you draw up meds with sharps, I thought that was a long gone practice.

*** You would think so wouldn't you? I also work at a VA hospital and while I find the standard of care there to be pretty good, they still engage in lot's and lot's of old fashinoned practices. like using real steel needles for drawing from vials and lot's and lot's of meds that need to be drawn up from vials.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Hmmmm - wonder what other things she does that she doesn't fess up to?

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

I've never seen a needless system for drawing meds out of vials. We still use ampules as well. In over a year of working at my job, we've never had any issues.

[katnurseswims]

First semester of nursing school a substitute instructor was guiding another student on how to give an injection. The student accidentally poked herself with the needle......the instructor mulled over whether or not the needle was contaminated......decided it wasn't after 5 seconds and told the student to give the injection. I was like: "STOP!!! That needle is contaminated and NO you can NOT use it!!". I physically had to stop my fellow student from giving the patient a contaminated injection. Ugh!!!!!!!

[jamie.glaze]

:eek:Wowww....yeah, that's pretty bad!!! Why do these things keep happening??? It's so frustrating!!

These things keep happening because hospitals don't want to hire new grads that know better!!! LOL jk, but seriously - do you know how many "experienced" nurses I have seen give the same rationale for IV sticks without gloves?? You are still piercing their skin, they are not colonized with your specific "germies" that you may be resistant to, but they may not. Better safe than sorry I say. I have also seen "experienced" nurses (and MDs) take purulent drainage covered indwelling catheters and wipe them off then re-insert them into the patient with the rationale "they are already colonized" :argue: WOW....

[MaryAnn_RN]

*** You would think so wouldn't you? I also work at a VA hospital and while I find the standard of care there to be pretty good, they still engage in lot's and lot's of old fashinoned practices. like using real steel needles for drawing from vials and lot's and lot's of meds that need to be drawn up from vials.

I work in the Uk and our ICU uses steel needles to draw up meds.

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

You mean to tell me that if I stick myself I can't just spit on the needle and wipe the blood off? Craziness!

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

I have found that the worst infection control offenders are the MDs.I have witnessed more nursing examples, but the truly shocking ones were committed by doctors.

Some years ago I had an appointment to see a podiatrist. As I sat on the exam table I had a clear view of the sink in the hallway. I watched the doctor pass from room to room. He "washed" his hands in between each patient but his version of washing his hands was running them under the water for a second then drying with a paper towel. No soap. This was a while ago and we didn't have hand sanitizers in each room yet. Blech. He didn't touch me when he came in the exam room. To think of all the germs he was sharing among his patients. I wasn't a nurse yet and was not outspoken (like I am now ). If it was present day I would have said something in a heart beat.

[DeLana_RN, BSN, RN]

We draw all our meds up with needles, and use lots of multi-dose vials (so plastic spikes wouldn't be realistic here). Recently, my hand slipped off the alcohol pad I used to break an ampulle of Dilaudid and my finger was sliced badly... I was bleeding all over the place... but no, I did not give the drug