orm_mar_apr-2025 - 19

Safety
totally preventable-this needs to
change, " he says.
When Graves was the OR clinical
manager at a large healthcare system,
he says he led the focus on sharps
safety. This included conducting audits
every time he rounded to evaluate staff
and surgeon compliance with sharps
safety practices, including double gloving
with a colored under-glove. He solicited
feedback on what was working and
where staff and surgeons were having
difficulty. And he included employee/
occupational health in his educational
efforts and data sharing to track trends
in injuries and encourage reporting. In
a matter of months after implementing
this stronger focus on sharps
safety, occupational health reporting
data demonstrated that his perioperative
department had the biggest drop
in actual sharps injuries compared with
all other facilities in the healthcare system.
" While facilitating the education,
tools, and accountability took a little
of my time, I firmly believe it was time
well spent, " he says. " It saved my colleagues
on the frontline from injury and
empowered a sharps safety mindset. "
❸ Cultivating a culture
of safety. Human
factors engineers
can be an important
addition to an organizational
sharps
safety team, according
to ECRI experts
Patrice D. Tremoulet,
PhD, director of
Human Factors Engineering,
and Shannon
Davila, MSN,
RN, CPPS, CPHQ,
CIC, FAPIC, executive
director of Total
Systems Safety. As
with most healthcare
issues, they say the
reasons for sharps
injuries are attributable
to multiple comPatrice
D.
Tremoulet,
PhD
Shannon
Davila, MSN,
RN, CPPS,
CPHQ, CIC,
FAPIC
www.ormanager.com
Systems, not silos
Understanding healthcare as a complex
system is valuable well beyond sharp
safety. As detailed in a 20-minute, animated
training video from ECRI, all staff
have a role to play in influencing safety
through observation, reporting, and supporting
a just culture. Designed for
every employee, the video offers more
detail on how understanding healthcare
as a complex system can translate
to organization-wide safety improvements.
Watch it at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=2mrOTmVgqSo.
ponents of the system (sidebar, Systems,
not silos).
Among other systems-based reasons
for sharps injuries, they cite sharps design
(the tools and technology component);
frequency of sharps use, fatigue,
and area of specialty (the people component);
and adverse schedule characteristics
such as long work hours and
working non-day shifts and weekends
(the organizational component).
They also suggest several human
factors engineering changes:
* Decentralize needle use when feasible,
such as having a phlebotomy
team.
* Increase experience and training of
team members.
* Provide a variety of safety engineered
sharps devices so that team
members can choose their preferred
device.
* Ensure unobstructed access to appropriate
sharps disposal containers.
*
Engage infection prevention experts
to educate healthcare professionals
on the risks on sharps injuries,
including the transmission of bloodborne
pathogens.
* Encourage reporting of sharps injury
near misses and actual events
so that risks can be effectively mitigated.
*
Work with just culture experts to evalReferences
Behzadmehr
R, Balouchi A, Hesaraki
M, et al. Prevalence and causes
of unreported needle stick injuries
among health care workers: a systematic
review and meta-analysis.
Reviews on Environmental Health
(REVEH). March 28, 2023.
EPINet Report for Needlestick and
Sharp Object Injuries. International
Safety Center. 2023.
Guideline for Sharps Safety. AORN.
January 1, 2025.
Gurria J P, Nolan H, Polites S, et al.
Don't Get Stuck: A Quality Improvement
Project to Reduce Perioperative
Blood-Borne Pathogen Exposure.
Joint Commission Journal on
Quality and Patient Safety. February
4, 2019.
Morris M E, Brusco N K, McAleer R, et
al. Professional care workforce: a
rapid review of evidence supporting
methods of recruitment, retention,
safety, and education. Human Resources
for Health. December 13,
2023.
Sharps Safety Program Resources.
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. April 3, 2024.
Wigert B. The Top 6 Things Employees
Want in Their Next Job. Gallup.
February 21, 2022.
OR Manager | Mar/Apr 2025 19
uate choices and behaviors related
to sharps injuries to determine between
human error, at-risk, and reckless
behavior.
Culture change requires more than
directing team members to be focused
and careful. " Simply put, we cannot
train our way to improved safety and
quality, " Tremoulet notes. " Instead, it's
imperative for healthcare leaders to recognize
that the complexity of the healthcare
environment requires thorough and
thoughtful consideration of the myriad
factors that lead to harm, including provider
harm. " ORM
-Carina Stanton is a freelance science
journalist who lives in Denver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mrOTmVgqSo https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34913621/ https://internationalsafetycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Official-2023-US-NeedleSummary-1.pdf http://www.aornguidelines.org https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30733139/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38093376/ https://www.cdc.gov/infection-control/hcp/sharps-safety/index.html https://www.gallup.com/workplace/389807/top-things-employees-next-job.aspx http://www.ormanager.com

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