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Resources

Useful Links & Resources (page 2)

In this section, we list current resources available about health care worker safety. The resources include: fact sheets, checklists, policies, websites, journal articles or annotated references and tool kits. The resources are organised according to the following categories:

3. Preventing Needlestick Injuries

American Nurses Association Needlestick Prevention Guide 2002

From introduction: "ANA, as part of its ongoing Safe Needles Save Lives campaign, has created this guide to help educate you and your colleagues about the risks of needlestick injuries and how to prevent them-particularly through the evaluation, selection, and implementation of safe needle and sharps devices. Chapter One details the exposure risks from injuries-especially from HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV)-and how these injuries can be prevented. It also outlines what steps you should take after an injury and your legal rights and protections-especially under the federal 2000 Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act. Chapters Two and Three focus on how you and your colleagues can take specific steps toward needlestick prevention in your health care institution."

Centers for Disease Control (US) (2004) Sharps Injury Prevention Program

"This program plan is designed to integrate into existing performance improvement, infection control, and safety programs. It is based on a model of continuous quality improvement, an approach that successful healthcare organizations are increasingly adopting.

"The [downloadable] workbook includes several sections that describe each of the organizational steps and operational processes. A toolkit of forms and worksheets is included to help guide program development and implementation.

"The workbook presents a comprehensive program for sharps injury prevention. The information can be used to:

Help healthcare organizations design, launch, and maintain a prevention program, and
Help healthcare organizations enhance or augment current activities if a program is already in place.

"The audience for this information includes healthcare administrators, program managers, and members of relevant healthcare organization committees.

"The sample forms and worksheets in the toolkit may also be adapted according to users' needs."

World Health Organization (2006) Protecting Healthcare Workers:Preventing needlestick injuries toolkit

Contents:

International Council of Nurses 2000, Factsheet: ICN on preventing needlestick injuries [Online].

A brief note which discusses the impact of needlestick injuries on nurses, nurses rights and ways to protect yourself. (2 pages)

PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) Giving Safe Injections

"This 112-page manual is a training curriculum for health care workers who provide injections. It includes information on the health impact of unsafe injections, selecting safe and effective vaccines, reconstituting vaccines safely, reading Vaccine Vial Monitors (VVMs), preventing needlestick injuries, and using a variety of auto-disable syringes."

PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) Needle Remover Resources

PATH has gathered available resources on needle removal to provide easy access to the information. This web page is intended to serve as a resource for countries and programs considering the introduction of needle removers

US Department of Health and Human Services 1999, Alert: Preventing Needlestick Injuries in Health Care Settings DHHS (NIOSH) Publication no 2000-108

An information sheet about the causes of needlestick injuries and how to protect yourself from injuries. (2 pages)

4. Managing Occupational Exposures and Post Exposure Prophylaxis

WHO Environmental Burden of Disease Series, No. 11

Sharps injuries: assessing the burden of disease from sharps injuries to health-care workers at national and local levels. Rapiti E., Pruss-Ustun A. & Hutin Y. (2005)

"[This] guide outlines a method for estimating the burden of disease at national or local levels from sharps injuries to healthcare workers. The assessment provides the incidence of HBV, HCV and HIV infections caused by sharps injuries to healthcare workers, and the fractions of the infections attributable to sharps injuries. The number of infections that could be prevented by PEP can also be estimated. The data can be used to assess the distribution of disease burden by category of Health-care worker, by ward or by activity, which would allow protection measures to be more-specifically targeted. The guide includes a numerical example, and a Microsoft Excel worksheet is available at the WHO website to assist with calculation (EBDassessment@who.int). Estimates from the Global burden of Disease study for sharps injuries to healthcare workers are listed in Annex1 for each of the 14 WHO subregions."

Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis and Related Diseases Bulletin 29: Management of Exposures to HIV/AIDS in a Health Care Setting [pdf]

Guidelines for managing occupational exposures in health care settings in Australia. It covers steps to take following the exposure over 6 months (from first aid immediately after the exposure to follow up serology 6 months after). (4 pages).

Center for Disease Control 2005, Updated U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for the Management of Occupational Exposures to HBV, HCV, and HIV and Recommendations for Postexposure Prophylaxis Morbidity and Mortality Weekly September 30 /54(RR-9): 1-24.

Evidence-based document which provides detailed information about occupational exposures (risks and management) and post exposure prophylaxis (rationale and efficacy).

Young T, Arens F, et al (2007) Antiretroviral post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for occupational HIV exposure (Review)

Literature review of all published controlled and analytical studies of use occupational post exposure prophylaxis from 1985 – 2005.

World Health Organization/ International Labour Organization Guidelines on post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to prevent HIV infection

“In September 2005, a Joint WHO/ILO Expert Consultation for the Development of Policy and Guidelines on Occupational and Non-occupational HIV Post-exposure Prophylaxis was held in Geneva. The objectives of this Consultation were (1) to review scientific evidence and programmatic experience in relation to providing PEP in occupational and non-occupational settings and (2) to recommend a consensus approach to formulating policy and operational guidelines for HIV PEP. Although the needs of workers and people who have been sexually assaulted provided the focus of the Consultation, consideration was given to other types of nonoccupational exposure for which PEP might be indicated: specifically, those arising from isolated or episodic injecting drug use and consensual sexual exposure. The Consultation recommendations, which are based on current understanding of the efficacy of PEP and available data for comparing different PEP strategies, represent the collective opinion of experts working in this field and form the basis of the present policy guidelines and service delivery recommendations.”

5. Stigma and Discrimination

UNAIDS (2002), Fact sheet: HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination

International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Antiretroviral (ARV) Treatment Fact Sheet 12: Stigma

Engender Health (2005) Reducing Stigma and Discrimination Related to HIV and AIDS: Training for Health Care Workers

"A two-volume curriculum offering a unique training opportunity for health workers in countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic. The training course guides health workers through an investigation of the root causes of stigma and discrimination while helping them to understand their own attitudes about HIV, AIDS, and individuals affected by these conditions and how these attitudes might affect the care they offer. The training also provides a review of clients' rights in receiving health care services, information about the use of standard precautions and proper infection prevention techniques to help minimize the risk of occupational exposure to HIV, and guidance in developing action plans to help the participants put what they have learned into practice at their service settings."

6. Waste Disposal

International Council of Nurses 2000, Factsheet: Immunisation Safety: Safe Waste Disposal Practices Save Lives [Online]

A brief note which provides information from a nursing perspective about health care waste management (technology, procedures, policy and planning). (3 pages).

Johannessen L, Dijkman M, Bartone C, Hanrahan D, Boyer M G, Chandra C. 2000, Healthcare Waste Management Guidance Note, The World Bank, [Online].

A document developed for World Bank staff which summarises the available knowledge and information in the field of healthcare waste management. It was intended to complement the WHO technical guidelines for health care facilities and waste management projects. The Guidance Note includes a chapter on waste management in small facilities with minimal resources. (69 pages).

World Health Organization 2000, Aide-Memoire for a national strategy for health-care waste management [pdf 73kb]

A brief note with checklist of key elements for safe health care waste management. (2 pages).

World Health Organization 1999, Handbook: Safe management of wastes from healthcare activities [Online].

A handbook which provides comprehensive guidance on safe, efficient, and environmentally sound methods for the handling and disposal of health-care wastes. For health-care settings in which resources are severely limited there is a separate chapter on minimal programmes which summarises the simplest and least costly techniques. (226 pages)

7. Clinical Practice Improvement

New South Wales Health (2002) Easy guide to clinical practice improvement: A guide for health care professionals. New South Wales Health Department, Sydney, Australia

This guide “aims to provide practical advice to clinicians and managers on how to use health care data to improve the quality and safety of health care in a systematic way... The Easy Guide to Clinical Practice Improvement is relevant to all clinicians and managers for developing the skills in the method and tools used in clinical practice improvement… The guide is divided into two key parts:
1. Clinical Practice Improvement (CPI) – a description of the model used to improve processes of care and service delivery.
2. Quality improvement tools and techniques – a guide to choosing and using the most appropriate tools and techniques for various stages of the improvement process.”