management
An Ethical Analysis of the case AIDS and Needles
1. Case fact
In the case of AIDS and Needles, nurses, doctors and other health care workers who use needles and syringes as part of their routine operation are exposed to the risk of infection of blood carried diseases from accidental injury on themselves. This issue is a pressing one as statistics reveal that Needlestick injuries occur frequently in large hospitals and account for about 80 per cent of reported occupational exposures to HIV among health care workers. It was conservatively estimated in 2005 that about 64 health care workers were then being infected with HIV each year as a result of needlestick injuries. Other blood carried diseases like Hepatitis B would also increase the risk of needlestick injuries. According to Centre for Disease Control, on the basis of hospital reports, that each year at least 12,000 health care workers are exposed to blood contaminated with the Hepatitis B virus, and of these 250 die as a consequence. Hence the fact that many people are suffering serious consequence from the risk forces us to view the problem seriously.
In the risk of needlestick injury, there are two parties involved. The first party is the user, i.e. nurses and doctors who operate the needle and syringe. The second party is the tool, i.e. the needle and syringe. From the operators’ end, regulatory bodies have developed guidelines and operation standards in protecting the nurses. The guidelines developed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) prohibit some high risk operation techniques like two handed recapping operation and replace it with safer one handed technique which imposes no risk on the operators. However such guidelines are hardly followed in the practice due to the highly stressful and demanding working environment of nurses. Several analysts suggested that the peculiar features of the nurse's work environment made it unlikely that needlesticks would be prevented through mere
1. Case fact
In the case of AIDS and Needles, nurses, doctors and other health care workers who use needles and syringes as part of their routine operation are exposed to the risk of infection of blood carried diseases from accidental injury on themselves. This issue is a pressing one as statistics reveal that Needlestick injuries occur frequently in large hospitals and account for about 80 per cent of reported occupational exposures to HIV among health care workers. It was conservatively estimated in 2005 that about 64 health care workers were then being infected with HIV each year as a result of needlestick injuries. Other blood carried diseases like Hepatitis B would also increase the risk of needlestick injuries. According to Centre for Disease Control, on the basis of hospital reports, that each year at least 12,000 health care workers are exposed to blood contaminated with the Hepatitis B virus, and of these 250 die as a consequence. Hence the fact that many people are suffering serious consequence from the risk forces us to view the problem seriously.
In the risk of needlestick injury, there are two parties involved. The first party is the user, i.e. nurses and doctors who operate the needle and syringe. The second party is the tool, i.e. the needle and syringe. From the operators’ end, regulatory bodies have developed guidelines and operation standards in protecting the nurses. The guidelines developed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) prohibit some high risk operation techniques like two handed recapping operation and replace it with safer one handed technique which imposes no risk on the operators. However such guidelines are hardly followed in the practice due to the highly stressful and demanding working environment of nurses. Several analysts suggested that the peculiar features of the nurse's work environment made it unlikely that needlesticks would be prevented through mere