do you trust your eyeglasses to protect you? do you wear no eye protection around body fluids?
i have been a wearer of prescription eyeglasses for many years now - actually from way back before i started my nursing career. i have come to depend on my glasses to be the barrier - knowing that protective goggles and splash sheilds existed, but not venturing to use them at work, in hospital.
today i have a new outlook on that as i did get body fluid exposure when blood splashed upwards from (i'm not sure which - the iv catheter or the tourniquet) when an iv start was attempted that i was assisting with. the blood came up and did actually leave splash marks on my glasses and on the skin very near my eye, i felt too that moisture did go in my eye ... i hope i'm wrong.
fortunately the patient is extremely low risk so i haven't much to fear, however, i am being cautious and have reported it and am going through the bloodwork and protected sex with hubby now. the paperwork is a big factor too with the incident so.... my advice from this day forward...
wear eye protection where you may get sprayed with body fluid!
I've never seen anyone wear eye protection to start an IV. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing anyone wear it for any reason. (med-surg)
Where I have seen eye protection in use is on the tv show "ER"... never here in the institution I work - and when I was in ER to be seen about the incident I did see someone prepping to start an IV, I asked if they'd wear goggles and they responded no. so.. .for the whole institution where I work it is a practice that is lacking. I tried the goggles we have today - kind of scratched, though they fit over my glasses they might be a hinderance to a good IV start as I lose some vision with them on.
nurse_1098
31 Posts
Where I have seen eye protection in use is on the tv show "ER"... never here in the institution I work - and when I was in ER to be seen about the incident I did see someone prepping to start an IV, I asked if they'd wear goggles and they responded no. so.. .for the whole institution where I work it is a practice that is lacking. I tried the goggles we have today - kind of scratched, though they fit over my glasses they might be a hinderance to a good IV start as I lose some vision with them on.