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Abstract Our study objectives were to describe injuries from sharps and gain insight into the culture of injury reporting among healthcare professionals at an academic medical center. We performed a retrospective chart review and analyzed sharps injuries reported in 2021 using chi- square analysis for categorical variables and t -tests or analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests for continuous variables. The highest rates of sharps injuries were reported by dental students (6.9%) and resident physicians (3.6%), followed by a smaller percentage of nurses, attending physicians, dental faculty, and medical students ( p < .001). The majority of injuries were reported to occur while administering an injection and/or working in the dental clinics (39%). The median number of days to report an injury was 0 days for dental students, 2 days for resident physicians ( p < .001), and 3 days for medical students ( p = .004). We found that sharps injuries continue to occur in the clinical teaching environment and could reflect procedures that confer a higher risk of injury. Further, our study suggests that there is a stronger culture of reporting among dental students. Keywords: needlestick, sharps injuries, reporting culture, dental students, academic medical center Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure and the Culture of Reporting Sharps Injuries at a Large Academic Institution
fessions in our institution. We sought to describe the type of injury, the role (i.e., job title or training level) of the injured individual, the time the injuries were most likely to occur, and the reporting culture in the dierent professions. Methods We performed a retrospective chart review and abstracted all sharps injuries reported in 2021 through the Accident Reporting Data- base maintained by Rutgers Environmental Health & Safety. We included de-identified data from our eight health sciences schools: pharmacy, dental medicine, graduate studies, health professions, nursing, public health, and the two medical schools. We reviewed the types of injuries and excluded the injuries that did not involve sharp instruments. Examples of non-sharps injuries include splashes, bites, scratches, and contact with blood or bodily fluids with- out the involvement of a sharp instrument. Additionally, we abstracted demographic information including gender, age, job title or training level, what activity was occur- ring when the injury was sustained, type of sharp instrument, accident setting, accident timing, and at which school and campus. We tabulated the following: • role within the university of the person injured, • type of injury sustained, • sharp instrument that caused the injury, • activity at the time of injury, • time of day the injury occurred, and • latency to reporting. Julie Caruth, MPH, MD School of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice; Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Christeen Abadir School of Graduate Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Ping-Hsin Chen, PhD Department of Family Medicine, Rutgers, New Jersey Medical School Noa’a Shimoni, MPH, MD Department of Family Medicine, Rutgers, New Jersey Medical School
Introduction Healthcare personnel are at risk for exposure to bloodborne pathogens, including HIV, hep- atitis B, and hepatitis C. The greatest exposure risk is due to needlestick and sharps injuries that occur most commonly in surgical special- ists and trainees (Ouyang et al., 2017). Fre- quent use of sharp instruments increases the risk of injury for surgeons and a lack of expe- rience increases the risk for surgical trainees (Dukka et al., 2021). Dental professionals are also at risk due to their frequent use of sharp instruments and the confined anatomy of a patient’s oral cavity (Lee et al., 2014). The culture of reporting at an academic medical center aects the likelihood that a healthcare worker will report an injury and
seek help for the injury. Multiple studies have shown that surgeons are likely to underreport injuries; the surgeons cite reasons such as lack of time, perceived minimal risk from the injury, and cumbersome or time-consuming reporting processes (Choi et al., 2017; Hirose et al., 2007; McCarthy & Britton, 2000). Trainees might fail to report injuries due to perceived low risk of the injury, embarrass- ment, or intimidation by someone at the aca- demic medical center (Bernard et al., 2013). Our large academic institution maintains a database where students and employees are instructed to report work-related acci- dents and injuries. Our study’s goal was to compare the reported sharps injuries in 2021 across the dierent healthcare pro-
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Volume 87 • Number 6
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