A critical review of the literature on sharps injuries: epidemiology, management of exposures and prevention

Abstract

This article reviews the literature related to the epidemiology, prevention and management of sharps injuries in health care workers, particularly nurses, and the subsequent risk of harm. The studies are reviewed chronologically, beginning with the efforts to reduce sharps injuries by changing behaviours, followed by the introduction of barriers to protect the caregiver, and finally, the engineering of safer products. Initial efforts to prevent sharps injuries focused on placing rigid, disposal containers at the site where sharps were used and instructing health care workers to refrain form the practice of recapping. When these interventions were shown to alter the type, but not the overall number, of sharps injuries, alternative measures were sought. This search intensified with the increasing evidence of the small, but measurable, risk of the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus from sharps injuries. The current knowledge of the factors related to sharps injuries has been collected primarily through retrospective surveillance. This surveillance has been conducted primarily in hospital settings and has focused on the type of sharp and the purpose for which it was used rather than prospective research. Research is now needed to elucidate the organizational and behavioural factors leading to sharps injury both within the hospital as well as other health care settings. The implications for nursing practice are discussed.