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New study indicates that appropriate safety-engineered equipment should be used for drawing venous and arterial blood to help reduce the risk of injury

A recent study published by the International Healthcare Worker Safety Center suggests that healthcare workers in ICU/CCU face increased risks in terms of exposure to blood and body fluids. The report states that "critically ill patients, like those found in the ICU/CCU require more procedures, tests and blood draws than patients in other settings, and these, in turn, require the use of more sharps". As expected, nurses sustained the largest percentage of injuries (61%) and the largest proportion of injuries to nurses involved blood-filled hollow-bore needles and thus were high risk for bloodborne pathogen transmission.

The article also suggests that "the largest proportion of injuries occurred while drawing venous blood". Devices related to these injuries included syringes used for drawing venous or arterial blood, butterfly needles, IV catheters and blood gas syringes. To address these injuries, the authors recommend that "appropriate safety-engineered equipment should be used for drawing venous and arterial blood". It also recommends that “syringes should not be used for venous blood drawing; instead, safety-engineered phlebotomy or butterfly needles should be used”. The authors also recommend the use of ABG syringes for arterial blood draws and blood transfer devices.

BD can help with these challenges. As a leader in healthcare worker safety, BD offers the most complete line of safety-engineered medical devices in the industry. For venous blood drawing, BD offers safety-engineered multi-sample needles, namely the BD Vacutainer® Eclipse™ Blood Collection Needle as well as safety-engineered blood collection sets, namely the BD Vacutainer® Push Button Blood Collection Set and the BD Vacutainer® Safety-Lok™ Blood Collection Set.

BD also has solutions for arterial blood drawing in the form of the BD Vacutainer® Eclipse™ Arterial Blood Syringe and for specimen transfers in the form of our BD Vacutainer® Blood Transfer Device.

For more information on these and other BD safety-engineered devices, click here. For a copy of the article published by the International Healthcare Worker Safety Center, click here.

BD Vacutainer® Eclipse™ Blood Collection Needle

BD Vacutainer® Safety-Lok™ Blood Collection Set

BD Vacutainer® Push Button Blood Collection Set

BD Vacutainer® Eclipse™ Arterial Blood Syringe

BD Vacutainer® Blood Transfer Device

Sources:

Perry J, Jagger, J. Reducing Sharps Injury Risk in Intensive Care Settings. Advances in Exposure Prevention, Vol. 7, No.3 – 2005.