Background Needlestick injury (NSI) is a very common, preventable and most overlooked healthcare associated injury that can turn into a significant co-morbidity. It occurs due to unawareness and negligence especially in handling and disposal of needles and sharp objects like pen-needles, lancets. The needlestick safety and prevention act in 2000, has focussed on the engineered safer medical sharp devices, keeping records of NSI and taking feedback information about the medical sharp devices from the injured healthcare personnel. We can further decrease the NSI by following safer practices.

Objective To decrease NSI incidences at hospitals by safer practices

Method A retrospective study was done where total number of needlestick injuries from January 2023 to December 2023, reported to the emergency of Indraprastha apollo hospital (IAH), was recorded. They were divided into groups according to their job and mechanism of injury was noted along.

Result In 2023, in IAH, 55 cases were reported in emergency for needlestick injury out of which 4 were doctors (7%), 27 were nurses (49%), 16 were housekeeping staffs (29%), 4 were support staff (7%) and 4 others (7%). Most injuries in nurses were while recapping and in housekeeping due to inappropriately disposed needles.

Conclusion Large number of NSI have been reported in recent years due to awareness among junior-most staffs about biomedical waste management. IAH has been arranging biannual training programs about safe handling of needle and has mandated gloves to every healthcare worker on field. We can further reduce the incidences by some modifications in needle handling, such as: we can count the needles used and disposed on every shift so that no needle will be missed and emphasize on Single handling of needle: one person, one needle, no passing on. Recapping can be avoided by destroying the needle after use and then disposing in a portable bin. We can add incidences of NSI in every procedure sheet to increase its reporting and also to personal records to assess the need of retraining of the concerned healthcare worker. we need to spread awareness to reduce social stigma about AIDS and hepatic virus infections so that more and more incidences will be reported.