May Is Busy with Health Observances

I haven't checked to see if May is the busiest month when it comes to health observances, but if it's not, it's way up there. Do campaigns for specific causes have any impact on you? I have a personal interest in this because of Sepsis Alliance, which brought about Sepsis Awareness Month this past  September.

Anyway, for the busy month of May, this is what I found for the United States:

Arthritis Awareness  Month

Better Hearing and Speech Month

Global Employee Health and Fitness Month

Healthy Vision Month

Hepatitis Awareness Month

Lupus Awareness Month 

Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month^®

Mental Health Month

National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month

National Celiac Disease Awareness Month 

National High Blood Pressure Education Month

National Mediterranean Diet Month

National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month

National Physical Fitness and Sports Month 

National Toxic Encephalopathy and Chemical Injury Awareness Month 

Ultraviolet Awareness Month

And then there are weekly observances:

May 6 to 12

Children's Mental Health Awareness Week

North American Occupational Safety and Health Week

National Stuttering Awareness Week

Air Quality Awareness Week 

May 13 to 19

Food Allergy Awareness Week

National Alcohol and Other Drug-Related Birth Defects Awareness Week

National Women's Health Week

May 14 to 18

National Neuropathy Awareness Week

May 21 to 27

Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Week

And now for the daily observances

May 12: Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Awarenesss Day

May 14: National Women's Check-Up Day

May 18: HIV Vaccine Awareness Day

May 19: Hepatitis Testing Day

May 20: National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

and World Autoimmune Arthritis Day

May 25: Heat Safety Awareness Week

May 30: National Senior Health & Fitness Day

May 31: World No Tobacco Day

Are there any here that surprise you?

Needle Picks and Nurse Fears

I've been a nurse for over 25 years. While I've picked myself occasionally with clean needles, ones that I was preparing to use (and then tossed), up until now I could say I'd never had a serious needle stick. Unfortunately, I can't make that claim any longer.

After taking blood from a patient this morning, I was trying to retract the butterfly needle into the plastic protective cover, only to have it jam. When that happened, my hand came off the plastic and then kind of rebounded back, embedding the needle into my thumb. Ouch. Blood. Ouch.

So, of course, off for blood tests, paperwork and more. I'm fine; I know I'm fine. The patient is in a low-risk category (probably as low-risk as they come), so I'm confident. But only to a point. You never really know someone and you never know what could show up. So, I wait.

No prophylactic (preventative) medication for me. If the patient had been high-risk, I would have taken the medications. Those things can have nasty side effects though.

But you know what's the worst part about stuff like this? Believe it or not, patient rights. I was lucky. The patient's family was very understanding and gave me permission to get blood samples for HIV and hepatitis. But, they also had the legal right to refuse this.

Years ago, when I worked at an acute care hospital, one of the nurses on my floor had a needle stick from someone who was very high risk. The doctor went in to ask the patient for permission to draw blood for HIV testing and he refused. He refused the next day and the day after that. He never ended up agreeing to it, despite being told why it was being requested.

As a result, my colleague had to take the antiretrovirals for a set period of time, to prevent the possibility of contracting HIV. The law was on the patient's side. But when a the health of a healthcare worker is at risk, shouldn't that trump the rights of the hospitalized patient?