Preventing nursing student exposure incidents: the role of personal protective equipment and safety engineered...

This descriptive study used a self-selected sample of 580 newly licensed 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-one exposure incidents were reported by 42 respondents (7% of total). Twenty of 31 percutaneous exposure incidents were potentially preventable through the use of safety-engineered devices. Similarly, 4 of 10 mucocutaneous incidents occurring during routine procedures were potentially preventable through the use of personal protective equipment. Limited use of safety-engineered devices and personal protective equipment in the occurrence of nursing student exposure incidents suggests that active steps by schools of nursing to ensure student access to and use of personal protective equipment and safety-engineered devices may minimize exposure incident risk for students.