Risk of needlestick injuries among nurses using novofine® autocover® safety needles and nurses' satisfaction with the needles: The NOVAC Study

Background: Needlestick injuries among health care professionals are a costly problem, both economically and in terms of anxiety and stress. NovoFine® Autocover® (NFA) 30G safety needles (Novo Nordisk A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark) were designed to minimize the risk of such injuries when used with insulin pens, which are increasingly preferred over syringes for injecting insulin.

Objective: This prospective study compared the risk of needlestick injury with NFA needles and regular needles on insulin pens among nurses who administered insulin to patients.

Methods: Nurses with ≥3 months' experience in diabetes care were eligible for participation. Nurses were trained in the use of NFA needles and then instructed to use them in their daily practice for 4 weeks, recording details of the injections administered and any injuries that occurred in a logbook.

Results: A total of 143 nurses at 52 hospitals located throughout France received training. Demographic data were available for 139 nurses (mean age 38.4 years, 96.4% female, with a mean of 8 years' diabetes experience): 123 of the nurses used NFA needles (7854 injections administered), 122 of whom also used regular needles (4491 injections). No needlestick injuries occurred with NFA needles, whereas 1 needlestick injury occurred with a regular needle. Nurses were very satisfied with the NFA needles, giving them a score of 8.1 on a scale of 0 to 10, rating personal safety as a particularly important benefit (score 9.5). Nurses preferred NFA needles to both regular needles on insulin pens and needles on syringes, citing personal safety and the saving of time as the main reasons.

Conclusions: These results suggest that NFA needles could reduce the risk of needlestick injuries and that nurses would welcome their other advantages, such as ease of use and saving of time.