Re-sheathing Needles: A Risky Workaround

Identify a workaround that you have used (or a co-worker has used) (this will not be used against anyone). Analyze why you chose this risk-taking behavior over a behavior that conforms to a culture that promotes safety.

Re-sheathing Needles Workaround

A workaround is an action that individuals perform to help them overcome a challenge in their work and achieve a certain goal. Even though this action deviates from the protocol set by an organization. Nursing workarounds are viewed as poor nursing practices that need to be eliminated. This is because some workarounds increase the risk of poor patient outcomes. Described providers who engage in workarounds as non-compliant and jeopardize patient safety. This is despite the notion that workarounds ensure patient safety and well-being and enhance patient care.

Re-sheathing Needles: A Risky Workaround

An example of a workaround I have seen a colleague at work engage in is re-sheathing needles. Re-sheathing a needle or simply returning it to its sheath is extremely. Dangerous and can result in accidental pricks in the fingers or the entire had. It also exposes nurses to exposure to risky chemicals, drugs, or infectious agents. Although it is not the right way to go about it, this colleague of mine held a needle using one hand and used the other hand to re-sheath. It is universally recommended that needles should not be re-sheathed under any circumstances.

This colleague of mine often engaged in re-sheathing needles without any protective equipment. The right way of handling this issue is using tongs, a recapping device, or one-hand scoop method to recap the needle. The colleague did not also use needle pliers, which significantly helps when dislodging the needle before being discarded into a sharps container.

The colleague reported the following reasons why he engages in this dangerous activity of re-sheathing needles. First, he said that he is experienced and cannot easily injure himself like a newly registered nurse. Second, he said that putting on gloves or using tongues to recap needles is time-consuming. For instance, it would take him a lot of time to put on gloves before re-sheathing a single needle and then removing the gloves afterward, something he would have done in seconds

Re-sheathing Needles: A Risky Workaround

Additionally, my colleague noted that he had not been using the protective gear for some time, and thus, he would be more likely to injure himself using them than when doing it with his bare hands. Lastly, he also justified his behavior and said that he rarely injures himself through re-sheathing and so the recommended way of handling needles after use should be for nurses who are new in the practice. APA