Proper Injection Training Is Needed To Assure Safety of Injections.

By Roxy Albright


Any procedure that involves a needle should only be received from someone with proper injection training to assure safety and good health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has clearly outlined the risks associated with improper injections. The risks include, but are not limited to, bloodborne diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS. Even in healthcare settings, each of these potentially deadly diseases can be contracted if proper procedures and protocols are ignored. Even the popular cosmetic injections, commonly taught at a beauty school without any further medical training and sterilization certification required, can be dangerous because of negligence.

Estimates from the WHO report that annually 21 million people contract hepatitis B from unsafe injection practices. 2 million more people contract hepatitis C and 260,000 people more contract HIV/AIDS. People without proper injection training are more likely to reuse injection needles or to not dispose of waste appropriately and are at the highest risk for transmitting disease. Some troubling, but important, questions are then raised. They include: What are the differences between a "safe" and "unsafe" injection? Do these unsafe practices occur only in non-health care settings? And in order to make the majority of needle use safe, what would be required?

In order to assure the general public is exposed to the least amount of risk anytime needles are involved, injection training is crucial. The WHO identifies distinct difference between "safe" and "unsafe" injection practices. Those injections deemed to be "safe" include a few key components: there is no risk of harm to recipient or administrator and resultant waste does not pose any danger to the community. Sharp equipment following any injection needs to be disposed of in a puncture proof container and properly discarded. Injections are conditioned to be "unsafe" if even one of these conditions is not fully met.

There are cases where those most trusted to perform injections (doctors, nurses and parmedical staff) have not received proper injection training. This occurs frequently in developing countries. Often times it is not a desire to cause harm, but rather a lack of awareness of risk to not only patients, but themselves, when safe practices are not followed. This problem is only compounded in communities where untrained, lay persons attempt to administer injections outside of the formal healthcare sector. Worldwide, those who lack formal training from a credible source, such as a medical or beauty school, are re-using syringes. This is a rampant problem in developing countries because there is a perfect storm of lack of awareness, cultural resistance to waste when resources are already so scarce, and lack of supplies and syringes.

Even in developed nations, healthcare workers often mistakenly believe that injections are more effective then oral medications. Injections often bring an increased fee over oral medication use and sometime lead to misuse. This occurs all too commonly to be ignored. Safety requires that overuse of injections is put to a stop. Increasing safety also includes changing community behavior and education. This training would need to include proper techniques and practices and, more especially, proper waste disposal methods. The practices of re-use of needles and syringes and waste disposal must be adequate and available in order to stop re-use and unsafe disposal of needles and syringes.

If reports by the WHO are correct, it is increasingly clear that injection training, received somewhere other than a beauty school, is need to reduce risk of infectious diseases.




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