Needle-Stick Injuries in Medical Students

Abstract

A standard questionnaire was used to assess the experience of needle-stick injury in 151 undergraduate medical students, during the previous 10 months. Eighty-two injuries were reported in the 95 questionnaires which were returned. Fifty-one of these took place during venepuncture; of these 26 whilst resheathing a needle. Seventy-two per cent of students resheathed used hypodermic needles, but their rate of injury did not differ significantly from the rate in those who did not resheath. The remaining 31 injuries occurred during surgical procedures. There was a significantly lower rate of injury in those who had earlier been advised to have hepatitis B immunization.