Summary
Australian healthcare workers and especially nurses repeatedly have their safety and
health jeopardized through occupational exposures to blood and body fluids. Percutaneous
or needlestick injuries are especially concerning and consistent. The purpose of this
article is to again draw attention to the serious and costly issue of needlestick
injuries in Australian healthcare settings. Specifically it considers the context
of needlestick injuries and safety engineered devices within Standard 3 of the Australian
Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care's National Standards reform agenda.
Given that Standard 3 alone will likely be insufficient to reduce needlestick injuries,
this article also discusses improvements and current challenges in international needlestick
injury reduction in an attempt to stimulate key opinion leader consideration of Australia
adopting similar strategies.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 08, 2013
Accepted:
June 6,
2013
Received in revised form:
June 1,
2013
Received:
January 7,
2013
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
