An Afternoon With Two Incidents

In practice

After giving a vaccine that she is trained and permitted to give, the medical assistant reaches for the needle's protective cap out of old habit. She stops herself and drops the needle into the sharps container instead. Later, while helping a coworker clean up, she is stuck by a needle someone else left on a tray. She washes the site with soap and water at once and reports the stick to her supervisor right away, not at the end of the day. The supervisor follows the exposure control plan. She is offered a confidential medical evaluation at no cost, and the route and circumstances are documented. The source patient is asked for consent to blood testing. Twenty minutes after another patient receives a vaccine, he says his throat feels tight, and the medical assistant sees hives spreading across his arms. She recognizes the early signs of anaphylaxis. She stays with him, calls loudly for the provider, and follows the practice's emergency protocol while the provider takes over. Afterward, she records what she saw, when it began and what was done, and the reaction is reported according to policy.