Safe Injection Practices

Germs such as hepatitis C virus, staph, and MRSA are invisible to the naked eye but can easily infect patients even when present in microscopic quantities.

• True

• False

While preparing a medication you drop the syringe on the floor. What should your next action be?

• You pick it up in under 5 seconds to prevent the transfer of germs.

• You discard it.

• You rinse it off in the sink with soap and water.

• You wipe it off with Sani-Wipes to disinfect it.

Single-dose or single-use vials should not be used for more than one patient regardless of how much medicine is remaining.

• True

• False

It is okay to reuse a syringe as long as you are only using it to draw up medications or vaccines.

• True

• False

Changing the needle makes a syringe safe for reuse.

• True

• False

Do not use medications packaged as _______-________ for more than one patient. (Tip-Only type one of the two possible solutions in lower case and hyphenated.)

Follow proper infection control practices and maintain __________ technique during the preparation and administration of injected medications.

Unsafe injection practices have devastating consequences such as: (select all that apply)

• Patient illness and death

• Loss of clinician licenses

• Legal charges/malpractice suits

• Criminal charges

• The Air Force cannot be sued for medical malpractice

In just one clinic 50,000 people were exposed to infection due to the reuse of syringes.  How many patients were they able to notify?

• 1,000 patients

• Half the patients

• All the patients were notified

• They weren't able to contact any of the patients.