What's in your sharps container?

[dontwakeme]

I've been an RN for almost two years now and I've seen nurses throw the most amazing trash into sharps containers. We were taught in school that sharps waste was paid for by the pound and it's the most expensive trash in town, and never never to put anything in there that wasn't a sharp. We don't have a very clear-cut policy on this, does anyone else?

[vivacious1healer]

but who is weird enough to reach in their no matter what is thrown in there.

I have witnessed patients, visitors, and staff members reaching into these very containers for the drugs. If desperate enough, they will risk being stuck by dirty needles to get that drug......

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

Strangest thing I have ever seen in one- a suction container with a dead snake in it. I promise. LOL Someone had brought the snake in "to show what bit me", and it was dead. Don't know how it ended up there.

Now that is funny! :chuckle Well, it is technically sharp, right? At least the wrong end of it is!

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

I've seen lancets, syringes, test strips, wasted narcs, bloody alcohol swabs, and used fentanyl patches in the sharps container. We were trained to discard stickers from empty med cards in the sharps container, due to HIPAA. I just black out the patient's name.

[StNeotser, ASN, RN]

We put narc wastes in the sharps container. They really don't take up that much room.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

I've been an RN for almost two years now and I've seen nurses throw the most amazing trash into sharps containers. We were taught in school that sharps waste was paid for by the pound and it's the most expensive trash in town, and never never to put anything in there that wasn't a sharp. We don't have a very clear-cut policy on this, does anyone else?

I throw all kinds of things into the sharps container. Wasted narcs, nitro and fentanyl patches, empty med vials, DCd PIVs, patient stickers, and recently it was even pointed out to me that the spike on an IV tubing is a sharp, so now I'm putting IV tubing in the sharps container.

[CopperEmerald]

My rule of thumb is that if something can injure someone or has the potential to be taken by someone, or if it has any biohazardous substance on it (within size reasons, of course. I'm talking glucose test strips, etc), it goes in the sharps box.

[Indy, LPN, LVN]

I throw all kinds of things into the sharps container. Wasted narcs, nitro and fentanyl patches, empty med vials, DCd PIVs, patient stickers, and recently it was even pointed out to me that the spike on an IV tubing is a sharp, so now I'm putting IV tubing in the sharps container.

Yes technically the spike is something that pokes something else, but good god, do you know how much force you'd have to use to poke a hole in your SKIN with that thing?!

[rachelgeorgina]

My rule of thumb is that if something can injure someone or has the potential to be taken by someone, or if it has any biohazardous substance on it (within size reasons, of course. I'm talking glucose test strips, etc), it goes in the sharps box.

Don't you have clinical waste bins for bioharardous substances?

[GiniRN]

I am a fairly new nurse, so it seems I get cornered by know-it-all nurses a lot. I was taught in nursing school (which was recent information) that narcotics should be wasted in the sharps container, not poured into the sink. I recently asked another nurse to witness my wasting of 2mg Morphine. When she co-signed I showed her the amount of drug in the syringe. Then I promptly tossed it into the sharps. She gave me the third degree about why I should have wasted it in the sink. I know the proper way to dispose of drug...as I was just taught these things in college, but there was just no convincing her. I'm all about learning from older nurses, but it's a little annoying when I get treated like an idiot even when I know I'm right.

[WSU_Ally_RN, BSN, RN]

I am a fairly new nurse, so it seems I get cornered by know-it-all nurses a lot. I was taught in nursing school (which was recent information) that narcotics should be wasted in the sharps container, not poured into the sink. I recently asked another nurse to witness my wasting of 2mg Morphine. When she co-signed I showed her the amount of drug in the syringe. Then I promptly tossed it into the sharps. She gave me the third degree about why I should have wasted it in the sink. I know the proper way to dispose of drug...as I was just taught these things in college, but there was just no convincing her. I'm all about learning from older nurses, but it's a little annoying when I get treated like an idiot even when I know I'm right.

It really all depends on your hospital's policy, and as a seasoned nurse, I'm sure she knows her policy's... At the hospital where I work, we have, in the past, had people carry full sharps containers out of the OR straight to their car because they didn't waste narcotics into the sink, just put the half full vial of whatever into the sharps container... Now our policy is to squirt in the sink.

Please remember that not everything you learned recently in nursing school is the right way to do things at your hospital, despite the fact that you may have just graduated... You really need to follow your hospital's policy and procedure's on things...

[GiniRN]

It really all depends on your hospital's policy, and as a seasoned nurse, I'm sure she knows her policy's... At the hospital where I work, we have, in the past, had people carry full sharps containers out of the OR straight to their car because they didn't waste narcotics into the sink, just put the half full vial of whatever into the sharps container... Now our policy is to squirt in the sink.

Please remember that not everything you learned recently in nursing school is the right way to do things at your hospital, despite the fact that you may have just graduated... You really need to follow your hospital's policy and procedure's on things...

This particular nurse is as new to the hospital as I am to the profession. I am familiar with our policy, and I double checked it after the confrontation. We are allowed by policy to dispose of these medication in the sharps container. This nurse was basing her decision to give me the third degree entirely upon her own opinion. I could care less if someone tries to dig medication from the sharps. If they're that dumb, I hope they get stuck. Anyway, her approach was not the best one. I only hope that when I've been in the profession so long, I don't become such a know-it-all. It's when you think you've learned it all that you stop learning. I probably know more about our hospital policies than she does because I actually bother to read them.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

My last hospital's policy was anything with blood or body fluids went into sharps, and all syringes and needles went in too, even if they had not been used. Items like Bandaids and diapers went into sharps, though at home they would go in the regular trash.

My current hospital has sharps containers that hold anything actually sharp and contaminated, and anything bloody but not sharp goes in the regular trash. They incinerate on site, so no worries about contaminated items being handled by nonemployees.

It really depends on hospital policy. And hospital policy should reflect the municipality's policies. We have to place regular trash in different cans because of a province wide recycling program...paper, plastic and metal, compost, and the regular garbage. A real PIA.