EYE OF THE NEEDLES
Findings show expert clinicians giving injections tend to focus on their target
Nursing student Emily Marsden wears an eye-tracking device as part of a University of Alberta study that seeks to reduce needle mishaps among new nursing grads.
JURIS GRANEY
Prompted by an increase in the number of students suffering needle-stick injuries each year, a study by two University of Alberta researchers could have real-world benefits for nursing students around the globe.
The slip of a needle might not mean much to student or mannequin in a training situation, but a needle-stick injury in day-to-day nursing duties has real health ramifications and can put students at risk of blood-borne illnesses like hepatitis B and C and HIV.
About 10 per cent of nursing and health science students at the U of A suffer needle-stick injuries and an estimated 20 per cent of nursing students worldwide experience one.
Barbara Wilson-Keates, an instructor with the U of A’s faculty of nursing, and Bin Zheng, an associate professor in surgical research in the faculty of medicine and dentistry, used eye-tracking technology in a surgical simulation lab to better understand what was going on.
They brought in 10 experienced clinicians and nurses late last year and had them wear goggles as they gave subcutaneous injections.
The goggles track the wearer’s eyes to see where and for how long they are focusing on a particular point. They then brought in 21 third-year nursing students who had just learned how to give injections and tracked their eyes.
“There were significant differences,” Wilson-Keates said.
Expert clinicians tend to focus on their target and where the needle is going, unlike the students, who “were completely focused on the needle.”
Part of the reason students are more at risk is because of the stress involved, she said.
Another reason is because needle-stick injuries are largely seen as par for the course for new nursing students, she said.
“Giving an injection, even if you are practising on a mannequin or a doll or something that’s not real, is still very stressful, so when you go to do it in a hospital, it is incredibly stressful because you have a patient watching you and looking at what you are doing,” she said.
The next stage is to incorporate its findings into curriculum across health sciences, including pharmacy, medicine and dentistry, and to help educate health-care providers on where they need to be looking to give a shot.
The research team plans to publish the study next year, but presented their findings at the faculty of nursing’s annual research day Nov. 3, and will present to an international simulation conference in Los Angeles in January.
It is incredibly stressful because you have a patient watching you and looking at what you are doing.