Stephanie Chalupka (Nursing) authored “Prepackaged Procedure Trays and Sharps Safety Standards,” which was published in Nursing Management.
In the United States each year, an estimated 380,000 to 800,000 healthcare workers based in hospitals are injured by sharps. Although sharps injuries have been associated with the transmission of at least 30 bloodborne pathogens, three of them–hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV– present the greatest concerns.
Chalupka’s co-authors were Catherine Galligan, M.S., of the Sustainable Hospitals Program, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Angela Laramie, M.P.H., epidemiologist for the Sharps Injury Surveillance and Prevention Project of the Occupational Health Surveillance Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and Letitia Davis, Sc.D., director of the Occupational Health Surveillance Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
This research was funded by Massachusetts Department of Public Health.