OSHA Infection Control Training For Blunt-Tip Suture Needles

    In the ongoing task of OSHA infection control training and education OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) have collaborated together to help your organization with bloodborne pathogens exposure control plans. As to your obligations to provide a safe work environment for you and the people around you the intent of this document is to help with your infection control monitoring as they fit into your health and safety practices.
    As of the date of this memo these implications by OSHA/NIOSH are not regulatory standards that must be implemented. This OSHA infection control training is being provided to help your organization provide a safer work place in the form of information you could put into your bloodborne pathogens exposure control plans.

    As a business owner you must provide a safe and healthy workplace for you and your employees. When it comes to infection control monitoring and safety work practices concerning precutaneous injuries that may occur from penetrating the skin with sharp surgical instruments there is some new information available to help with possible bloodborne pathogens exposure.
    It is the intent of this article to help you investigate day to day operations and see where you can implement these OSHA infection control training changes to provide a safer work environment. This would allow for safer work practices for your surgical staff along with providing a good quality level of attention to the medical procedures in question. As you and your personnel know your business practices better then anyone it may be a good idea to study which surgical duties can safely switch from the use of sharp-tip suture needles to blunt-tip needles.

    Surgical personnel are exposed to the possibility of precutaneous injuries through the use of the traditional sharp-tip needles in surgical procedures. OSHA’s ongoing infection control training program has come up with data that shows through the use of blunt-tip suture needles the risk of precutaneous injuries can be reduced dramatically where it is shown that the use of blunt-tip suture needles is acceptable in the certain medical procedures.

     OSHA infection control training studies have shown that blunt-tip suture needles reduce injury occurrences to medical personnel who may be subject to skin penetration injuries through daily work procedures. This has been supported by such organizations as the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN).

Skin penetration injuries can occur in work procedures such as the following:

• Load or reposition the needle into the needle holder;
• Pass the needle hand-to-hand between team members;
• Sew toward the surgeon or assistant while the surgeon or assistant holds back other tissue;
• Tie the tissue with the needle still attached; Leave the needle on the operative field;
• Place needles in an over-filled sharps container; or
• Place needles in a poorly located sharps container.

    Blunt-tip suture needles can greatly reduce injury when used in the appropriate situations such as procedures involving muscle and fascia as these are not very dense tissue. It has been shown that almost 60% of suture needle injuries occur during muscle and fascia tasks. It may be the case that at the time of the surgical procedure a decision can be made as to which type of suture needle is to be used. This decision should take into consideration the task at hand and any problems that may occur by using a blunt-tip suture needle instead of a sharp-tip needle. The main consideration should be for the safety of the surgical procedure as opposed to the possibility of a skin penetration injury.

    The use of blunt-tip suture needles has been shown to reduce the risk of percutaneous injuries and is being supported by both OSHA and NIOSH. Employers have the responsibility to provide a safe work environment as to the Bloodborne Pathogens standard and the implementation of OSHA infection control training. The use of blunt-tip suture needles is one method of helping to achieve safer medical practices when appropriate. The introduction of the use of blunt-tip suture needles in certain medical procedures should be investigated as to how the switch from the use of sharp-tip needles will affect the quality and safety of the procedure in question. By implementing internal investigations in your work practices it can be established if the use of blunt-tip suture needles will help with your organization’s infection control monitoring and bloodborne pathogens exposure control plans.  

    I hope that this paper has helped somewhat for your safety procedures work practices when it comes to the safety of your personnel when it comes to possible percutaneous injuries in medical procedures. Please note that this memo is the personal view point of the author and is copyrighted material produced by Safety Protection Warehouse. This information is for general guidance only and neither Safety Protection Warehouse nor the author Terry Smeader makes any warranty expressed or implied and assumes no liability what so ever for the use of this information.

    To view to full documentation on OSHA's publication of the use of bunt-tip suture needles in medical procedures please click on the following link.

    "Click here" the read OSHA's proposal for the use of blunt-tip suture needles to decrease percutaneous injuries to surgical personnel

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