Understanding the Different Types of Safety Needles and Syringes

Doctors, nurses, and medical professionals frequently use syringes and needles to extract blood and administer medications, fluids, and vaccines to patients. Healthcare workers must use these tools and accessories with complete precision and safety when conducting medical tests and treating patients. Any failure to handle syringes or needles could have dire consequences for the workers or patients.

All it takes is one accidental needlestick injury to expose a patient to potentially dangerous diseases and pathogens, such as Hepatitis B and HIV. There are no cures for such illnesses after an infection occurs. That is why medical professionals must learn to use safety syringes and needles to protect against unwanted injuries and disease transmission.

For this reason, more medical facilities are stocking up on safety syringes and needles to protect patients and healthcare workers from such incidents. Medical schools are also training their students on using safety syringes to help them develop a safety mindset when treating patients. 

What are Safety Syringes?

Safety syringes are special medical syringes with built-in safety mechanisms to prevent accidental needlestick injuries and reduce the risk of spreading deadly diseases. They still function like traditional syringes, allowing healthcare workers to inject medications, fluids, and vaccines into patients. The difference is the safety protection against reusing the syringes after the first injection.  

You can supply multiple types of safety syringes and needles to the healthcare workers of your medical facility or the students at your medical school. What separates each one is the various safety mechanisms built into them. Are you curious to learn what they are? 

Let’s discuss the top six types of safety syringes and needles. 

1) Retractable Needle Safety Syringes

Retractable needle safety syringes are among the most used safety syringes in the healthcare industry. Each one has a retractable needle that automatically slides back and retracts into the barrel after injecting someone with it. Some syringes have a button to manually press to activate the needle retraction, while others are automated. 

The needle stays locked and secured inside the barrel after the retraction. That way, it is impossible for a healthcare worker to accidentally stick themselves or someone else with the needle when they carry the syringe around or leave it somewhere unprotected. Furthermore, the needle retraction makes it safe to throw away the needle so that no one will risk poking themselves when handling the trash or special disposal container.

Best Scenarios for Using Retractable Syringes

Doctors and nurses working in busy hospital environments must use syringes to administer medication quickly. Unfortunately, such a high-pressure environment makes them more likely to forget to manually activate the safety mechanism on their syringes to prevent accidental needle sticking. 

The automated retractable syringes help alleviate this pressure and stress by automatically activating the safety mechanism for the healthcare workers. They don’t have to remember to activate the safety mechanism because the needle will automatically retract after the first injection. Any healthcare worker in an emergency room, operating room, or laboratory can stay safe without any risk of injuring a patient or spreading diseases or pathogens.  

2) Protective Shield Safety Syringes

Protective shield safety syringes (also known as sheath syringes) can protect healthcare workers from accidentally sticking themselves with the needle after administering an injection. These syringes have a protective cover guard that pivots or slides over the needle after injecting someone with it. The cover guard serves as a shield locked and secured to prevent anyone from getting stuck with the needle tip. 

Most of these syringes have automated needle shields, while others require the user to slide the shield over the needle to secure it manually. New healthcare workers and medical students in training may benefit more from using protective shield syringes because they visually confirm that the safety mechanism is activated. That can provide peace of mind that the syringe is safe for disposal. 

Best Scenarios for Using Protective Shield Syringes

Protective shield syringes with slidable sheaths are often used in blood donation drives, public health outreach programs, school immunization programs, and mobile clinics. The safety shield mechanism is quick and easy to activate, protecting others and reducing the risk of disposal hazards. The syringes are suitable for high-volume use in busy public settings like these. 

3) Auto-Disable Safety Syringes

Traditional syringes are easily reusable after they are thrown away because they have no mechanisms to disable them. On the other hand, some safety syringes are built with a locking mechanism to automatically disable the plunger after administering a single injection. They contain an internal mechanism that locks the plunger inside the barrel after depressing it to prevent you from reusing the syringe again.

Medical schools use auto-disable syringes to teach beginner students who are inexperienced with using syringes or manually activating safety mechanisms. The auto-disable feature ensures they stay safe using the syringe no matter what.  

Best Scenarios for Using Auto-Disable Syringes

Mass immunization campaigns in developing countries usually have a big problem sharing needles because so few are available. This increases the rate of infection and disease transmission amongst the population. Auto-disable safety syringes are frequently used in vaccination programs and settings where syringes are more likely to be shared or reused.

For example, remote healthcare clinics are places where auto-disabled syringes are used frequently under minimal supervision and regulation. If there are few syringe disposal facilities or medical waste management programs in the area, an auto-disabled mechanism will prevent accidents or reuse if the syringes are disposed of inappropriately.

4) Breaking Plunger Syringes

Breaking plunger syringes are like auto-disable syringes, except they disable them differently. Instead of locking the plunger inside the barrel, the plunger snaps or breaks off after being fully depressed during the first injection. An internal mechanism simply breaks the plunger automatically.

Some healthcare facilities and medical schools are concerned about people attempting to bypass the built-in mechanisms of safety syringes and reuse them. However, this cannot happen when the plunger breaks because no one can use the syringe again afterward. These self-destructing syringes do a great job of keeping people safe by preventing the spread of disease.

Best Scenarios for Using Breaking Plunger Syringes

Breaking plunger syringes can prevent reuse in high-risk environments where people are more likely to attempt to bypass the safety mechanism, such as hospitals, disaster relief clinics, mass immunization clinics, correctional facilities, and low-resource environments. 

These represent high-pressure and high-risk environments where healthcare workers are moving quickly. They don’t have time to mess with manual safety mechanisms on syringes, so they find the breaker plunger syringes quite convenient when they are on the go.  

5) Syringe with Blunt-Fill Needle

Syringes with blunt-fill needles are the safest substitutes for standard needles. Healthcare workers mainly use them to extract medication or liquid from a sealed ampoule or vial. Blunt-fill needles have “blunt” needle tips that are round and not sharp, which means they cannot poke or stick somebody if they accidentally bump into them.

You don’t use syringes with blunt-fill needles to administer medication directly to patients because the round tips make it impossible to penetrate their skin. That makes them the safest needles in any healthcare setting, even though they only extract medicine from ampoules and vials. 

Best Scenarios for Using Blunt-Fill Syringe Needles

Blunt-fill needles are common in pharmacies, nursing stations, patient care units, surgical centers, home healthcare settings, and long-term care facilities where medication is frequently administered to treat patients and help them recover.

6) Eclipse Syringes

An Eclipse syringe is like a protective shield syringe because it has a mechanism to cover the needle after the first injection. The difference is that the Eclipse syringe uses a pivoting shield attachment to cover the needle, whereas the protective shield syringe uses a sliding sheath mechanism. 

Some healthcare workers prefer the pivoting shield mechanism because they can use their thumb to cover the needle with the shield and listen for the clicking sound to confirm it is locked in place. Since it is not automated, it may be more suited for experienced healthcare workers and students who prefer to control the safety mechanism themselves. 

Best Scenarios for Using Eclipse Syringes

Eclipse syringes are best used in vaccination clinics and home healthcare settings where quick treatment is unnecessary. People with less experience, such as home healthcare providers and patients themselves, can safely learn to administer injections with Eclipse syringes. They are also much more affordable than other types of safety syringes. 

Compliance with Health and Safety Regulations

Many legal jurisdictions now require healthcare workers and facilities to use safety syringes rather than the traditional syringes that don’t have safety mechanisms. Whether you use retractable syringes, auto-disable syringes, breaking plunger syringes, or shielded needles, they will ensure you comply with local laws and regulations.

For instance, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a federal regulatory agency that oversees health and safety regulations in the country. It makes the rules that health organizations must follow to ensure all their patients are safe and protected from accidental needlesticks and disease transmissions. Failure to comply can result in fines and penalties for the organization. 

In addition, health organizations and their workers must dispose of used syringes and needles in puncture-resistant sharps containers. These containers must all be leak-proof and contain labels with biohazard symbols to warn people of the dangerous contents inside. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also regulates medical waste to protect the environment. 

Not all countries have the same strict medical waste standards as the United States. Many underdeveloped countries are the biggest violators of such standards because they lack the proper resources to uphold them. Because of this, the World Health Organization steps in to help promote universal health coverage and disease prevention in the most vulnerable countries in the world. It helps supply safe syringes and needles to countries that would otherwise not have access to them and establishes sharps waste management systems to ensure they are disposed of properly. 

The Use of Safety Syringes in Medical Schools and Training Facilities

Most universities, medical schools, and nursing programs require instructors to supply safety syringes to their students. Since these syringes have become the new standard in modern medical practices, students must learn the best techniques for drawing blood or administering injections. Safety syringes also keep students, instructors, and human simulation patients safe as the students gain experience using syringes properly.

Medical schools and training programs will simulate real-life healthcare scenarios and crises to train students to respond accurately and effectively. They will initially supply simulation models or manikins as training dummies until students can master the techniques of drawing blood and administering injections with syringes. 

A life-size patient care manikin simulates patient care requirements in nurses, hospitals, and educational facilities. The manikin has a simulated torso and limbs with realistic flexibility and features for administering various forms of treatment, including syringe-based injections. Students can practice safety with their injection techniques while using a safety syringe to do the injections. It is perfect for practicing intravenous, intramuscular, and subcutaneous syringe techniques.  

These skills will be useful once students advance in their training program and practice on simulated human patients. They can apply the same safe techniques with a safety syringe on the human patient and receive a realistic response based on their actions

Conclusion

Now, you should better understand the different types of safety needles and syringes that healthcare workers and medical students use on patients. They help prevent accidental needlestick injuries and reduce the risk of spreading viruses and diseases to others. 

Do you need some high-quality safety syringes and needles? Pristine Medical is a renowned manufacturer and distributor of educational healthcare supplies and equipment. They offer several safety syringes and needles to serve various treatment circumstances and training scenarios, including hypodermic safety needles and insulin safety syringes.