PPE Archives - TIDI Digital Library

Authors: Amber Hogan Mitchell, DrPH, MPH, CPH and Linda Powell, MSN, RN, FNP

Take the time to protect your eyes from pathogens.

Takeaways:

Nurses sustain the largest percentage of blood and body fluid exposures (BBFE) in acute-care settings in the United States.
From 50% to 60% of splashes that touch unprotected skin are blood or body fluids visibly contaminated with blood; 83.4% occur to the nurse’s face and 66.7% occur to their eyes.
Of those nurses reporting any kind of BBFE, only 8.1% said they were wearing eye protection.
Eye protection should be used whenever exposure to body fluids or infectious viruses and bacteria can occur, not just when exposure is likely to occur.

Learn how to reduce the risk and what to do if an injury occurs.

Takeaways:

Preventing blood and body fluid exposures depends on surveillance, ongoing education, and adherence to a hierarchy of controls, such as personal protective equipment.

The estimated cost of each eye exposure incident is more than $1,000.

To build the best interventional programs, detailed information is needed so that targeted approaches can be used to avoid recurrence.

Splash safety—Protecting your eyes, Part I

Take the time to protect your eyes from pathogens.

Splash safety—Protecting your eyes, Part 2

Learn how to reduce the risk and what to do if an injury occurs.