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Discussion

stuck myself with needle

In my facility we do not have sharps containers in the residents rooms. At the end of my shift, I reached in my pocket and felt a prick. I pulled out an insulin needle. Im a brand new nurse struggling with 30 residents on a skilled unit. I must have gave the injection then put the needle (with the safety sheath that slides up on) in my pocket while being pulled in another direction as I was heading toward my med cart where the sharps container is. Obviously, by the end of the night, I must have forgotten it was there. I KNOW, very dumb of me to put it in my pocket even with a safety cap over it. Im so scared to report this because I have a history if being honest, doing the right thing, then having it work against me. Ive only been off of training for 3 days, and Im so scared they will fire me. They are hiring a lot of new people right now, so I doubt they would think twice about firing me, thinking Im an unsafe nurse. But I have to find out what risk I put myself at. I know the chances are minimal, but if not to know for myself, I have to know for my husband. I could never risk giving him anything I caught because I was too afraid to speak up. Any advice on how to bring this up to my work? I dont want them thinking im a careless nurse.

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    Im a brand new Nurse, still orienting and guess what I did last night? The same thing you did, except I did not stick myself. It was the first time I had put a used needle in my pocket and as I did so I thought to myself what a bad idea, probably shouldnt do that again. My problem last night was that I always seem to have my hands full and when I go to a clients room, there is not always a bedside table to put anything down on. Im all thumbs and it has been hard for me to coordinate multiple items , do a task and have nowhere to put anything down. I have also been getting in the bad habit of not wearing gloves for insulins because #1 it is time consuming, #2 I never see anyone else use them. Dumb, I know. How did you prick yourself with the cover in place? Just curious. Im not sure how you would bring it up at work, but your health is more importatnt than this job. Everyone makes mistakes, stop being so hard on yourself.

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    Im a brand new Nurse, still orienting and guess what I did last night? The same thing you did, except I did not stick myself. It was the first time I had put a used needle in my pocket and as I did so I thought to myself what a bad idea, probably shouldnt do that again. My problem last night was that I always seem to have my hands full and when I go to a clients room, there is not always a bedside table to put anything down on. Im all thumbs and it has been hard for me to coordinate multiple items , do a task and have nowhere to put anything down. I have also been getting in the bad habit of not wearing gloves for insulins because #1 it is time consuming, #2 I never see anyone else use them. Dumb, I know. How did you prick yourself with the cover in place? Just curious. Im not sure how you would bring it up at work, but your health is more importatnt than this job. Everyone makes mistakes, stop being so hard on yourself.
    the cap slides back down easily. I thought the same thing. How did the safety sheath slide down? So I tested it the next day and sure enough it slides back down easily
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    The fact that the sheath slid back easily is reportable to the DON or supervisor, so that nobody else gets hurt. That's how I would approach it-you can state that you went to remove it from your pocket to dispose of in the sharps container and that the sheath slid back and you were stuck. You can say that you tried it out on another syringe and that the sheath slid back very easily and you felt you should report this immediately so that nobody else gets hurt. They may cut you some slack for reporting an issue that could very easily put alot of people in jeopardy with faulty equipment. Honesty is always the best policy, especially if it has the potential to prevent injury.

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    They shouldn't blink an eye lash. What nurse hasn't stuck herself at some point.

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