Current Issues with Blood Borne Pathogens in our Society (Case Study Sample)

Current Issues with Blood Borne Pathogens in our Society
Author
College
Is a Blood borne Pathogen Exposure Treated as an Emergency? Nurses Reveal their
Experiences
The article analyses the emergency reaction towards accidental exposure on blood borne pathogens among nurses. The study was conducted by The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA). The Nurses give their personal experiences with exposures to these pathogens. The survey was conducted to get a view of how the nurses understand with exposures. It also assesses the obstacles that the nurses explained in reporting such emergency exposures.
The study also elaborates the difficulties met when seeking treatment for exposures. The survey was conducted for six months and obtained 356 responses. The survey evaluates into blood pathogens such as HIV and Hepatitis. In October 2011, the MNA blood borne pathogen research was published on Survey Monkey. The survey had limitations in terms of responses. Of the 23,000 interviewed, only 356 nurses responded (Massachusetts Nurses Association, 2011).
The findings from the survey are that the probability of contracting HIV or hepatitis from a needle prick lies from 0.3% to 1.8 % (Massachusetts Nurses Association, 2011). Even though the percentages seem low, it needs to be noted that these diseases are either incurable or chronic. These diseases are an occupational hazard and are difficult to manage.
Globally, nurses are still at a higher risk of contracting these blood borne pathogens. Most of these transmissions are from infected needle pricks or sharp injuries. These transmissions have been scouted to increase because researches shows contact of infected mucous, tissue, blood and other body fluids could lead to infection.
One of the questions was the understanding of the blood borne pathogen exposure. Most of the responses were that these blood borne exposures are from needle stick, blood in mucous membrane and blood on an open wound. These had the highest number of responses which ranged from 340-350 (Massachusetts Nurses Association, 2011).The surveyors noted few responses on other exposures. These include splash of body fluids, urine on a wound and blood on intact skin.
Of the 350 nurses surveyed, 121 responded that they had a blood borne pathogen exposure over the past ten years which represented 34.57% (Massachusetts Nurses Association, 2011). 54 nurses responded that they did not formally report the exposure to their organization. On being questioned why they did not report, most nurses responded that they thought that this was not an emergency. Others said that there was too little time to report. Very few said they were discouraged by their supervisor and were worried by reaction from their colleagues.
28 % of the nurses responded that the source patient did not sign an informed consent form for HIV testing (Massachusetts Nurses Association, 2011). The reason behind this is because the patient’s status was already known. The other reason was that the nurses were told it was not necessary. Few patients refused to be tested (Lazar, 2011).
I am in agreement with this article because blood borne pathogen expo...