PREVENTING NURSING STUDENT EXPOSURE INCIDENTS - THE ROLE OF PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT AND SAFETY ENGINEERED DEVICES

This descriptive study used a self-selected sample of 580 newly licens ed Virginia registered nurses to examine risk factors for percutaneous (needlestick) and mucocutaneous (splash) exposure incidents to blood or body fluids that occurred while they were nursing students. Fifty-o ne exposure incidents were reported by 42 respondents (7% of total). T wenty of 31 percutaneous exposure incidents were potentially preventab le through the use of safety-engineered devices. Similarly, 4 of 10 mu cocutaneous incidents occurring during routine procedures were potenti ally preventable through the use of personal protective equipment. Lim ited use of safety-engineered devices and personal protective equipmen t in the occurrence of nursing student exposure incidents suggests tha t active steps by schools of nursing to ensure student access to and u se of personal protective equipment and safety-engineered devices may minimize exposure incident risk for students.