Ogg, M. J. (2015). Exposure control plans in the OR. AORN Journal, 102(2), 200–208. http://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2015.05.004
The purpose of this article is to answer the question “what is an exposure control plan, and is one needed in the OR?” There are many different reasons why an exposure plan is needed which are outlined in this article. The first is that a number of different human bodily fluids are found in the OR and these can carry infectious disease, which may be more likely to infect a patient in the OR due to their vulnerability. The staff in the OR must know about the transmissibility of these infectious agents to help prevent spread of disease or hospital acquired infection.

The article suggests that the plan should be made available to all members of staff working in the OR to ensure that there is no cross-contamination between bodily fluids. This includes guidelines for working with sharps, which can also harbor disease and be spread to both staff and patients. These need to be one-use ideally, as this is the best way of preventing cross-contamination. The OR exposure plan should also detail how these sharps injuries occur and the best ways of preventing them to protect staff.

The article also suggests that the OR plan needs to make clear the difference between passive and active devices. Passive devices are those that require no user input to ensure that they are safe – like a needle that retracts – and active are those that need disposal to protect staff from sharps injuries. Additionally, all contaminated sharps and gloves should be placed into special biohazard disposal waste as this can again help to prevent infections spreading and injury to staff. Blood-borne diseases are particularly mentioned in this article because they are the most likely to cause severe illness through sharps injuries.