Emergency needlestick injury.

During the course of a year, there are many healthcare workers nationwide who sustain sharps injuries whilst carrying out their duties. Staff who work in the Accident and Emergency (A & E) units are no different from anyone else in this respect. The emotional cost of such an accident cannot be calculated, whereas the financial costs can. This article aims to show how the cost of an injury to a member of staff can be calculated, thus allowing a manager to assess the financial implications of sharps injuries to their department. In the absence of access to an Occupational Health (OH) department, most A & E units have to respond to sharps injuries to healthcare workers in the hospital. This task must be attended to by the medical staff as well as the nursing staff of the A & E unit. Within the following text the appropriate responses and methods to ensure uniformity of response are discussed. The tables and the calculation figures shown are taken directly from the information held in the St James's University Hospital Trust's OH department. All calculations are based on the middle band of the salary scale for each discipline. Accurate costings for each member of staff injured cannot be shown in this article, but the general principle is laid down and can be easily followed for any situation.