For nurses, working with IV catheters poses a significant risk for blood exposures, yet most incidents go unreported.
Healthcare workers place more than 300 million short peripheral intravenous catheters every year in the United States. A study reports that nurses are at risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens in 128 of 100,000 IV catheter insertions, compared to the more commonly recognized risk of exposure from needlestick injury with non-safety catheters at 6.6 per 100,000 devices.
Furthermore, the majority of IV catheter insertion exposures go unreported. Of the total mucous membrane exposures sustained by respondents in a recent study, 69% were not reported. In comparison, the CDC's underreporting rate for sharps injuries is 57%.
Almost nine in 10 of those nurses who did not report the incident said they did not think the exposure was significant enough to report; more than one third said they were too busy, and 9% said they were concerned about others' perceptions.