OSHA Watch Question of the Month - May/June 2005
May/June Question of the Month: Must gloves be worn when giving injections?
Answer: The bloodborne pathogens standard requires glove use whenever it's reasonable to anticipate hand contact with blood or other potentially infectious body fluids, such as when performing vascular access procedures. Surprisingly, OSHA's 11/05/99 Compliance Directive says: 'Gloves are usually not necessary when administering intramuscular or subcutaneous injections as long as bleeding that could result in hand contact with blood or OPIM is not anticipated.'
Bottom Line: The OSHA Experts at Quality America usually don’t interpret the regs more stringently than OSHA does, but in this case we beg to differ. Since most healthcare workers aren't clairvoyant and can't predict when a drop of blood will be on the skin when the needle is withdrawn, we recommend wearing gloves for any kind of injection. If you're in OSHA's camp, please reply to sdunn@charter.net and let us know why. If we hear from you, we'll pass along your comments (anonymously if you wish) in the next issue of OSHA Watch.
Source: http://www.osha-slc.gov/OshDoc/Directive_data/CPL_2-2_44D.html
Posted by Quality America on December 20, 2005 | Comments (0)
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