Breaking: New Ebola case in NYC « Hot Air
Before news of the positive test was reported, ABC News told people that they shouldn’t worry too much until more was known. It now seems that New Yorkers really do have something to worry about, perhaps especially that health-care professionals seem to be rather nonchalant about risks.
Uh huh…
Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health care workers regarding needle stick
Results: Of 80 participants, 29 were doctors and 51 were registered nurses. About 45% reported having a needle stick injury in the past. Frequency of injury was significantly higher among doctors (p<0.001). The most common reason identified was stress or being over burdened followed by careless attitude. More than 50% of the injuries occurred while injecting or drawing blood samples. The risk of getting infections was well known amongst both the groups. Two third of participants were familiar with the prevention protocols and practices of nurses were generally safer than doctors (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Despite knowing the risks, frequency of needle stick injury was generally higher especially among doctors reflecting bad practice and careless attitude towards work. Mandatory reporting, proper follow-up and constant reinforcement are recommended to reduce the rate of nosocomial transmission to health care workers (JPMA 58:57;2008).
Doctors are notoriously careless about infection protocols. “Nocosomial transmission,” by the way, is fancy med-speak for infections acquired in hospitals.
Here’s some more food for thought: Nocosomial infections kill about 100,000 Americans every year. That’s an awful lot of carelessness.
Sorry; “Nosocomial”. Of course, me talking about typos and letter transpositions is the pot calling the kettle black…..
Iatrogenesis has been a well known and uncorrected problem for a long time. Doctors loathe admitting they make mistakes.
To be fair, so does most everyone else. OTOH, I’m even less inclined to accept doctors’ silence about mistakes than I am to accept, say, bridge engineers’ silence about mistakes. The bridge engineers at least have dozens or hundreds of other people who see what’s going on and can raise a red flag.