An 'Academic Detailing' Intervention To Decrease Exposure to HIV Infection among Health-care Workers.

This intervention aimed to decrease health-care workers' experience of automatic pilot (mindless functioning) when performing high risk procedures. An academic detailing visit resulted in a significant increase in compliance with safety guidelines and a decreased incidence of other unsafe practices among 80 health care workers of two hospital units. The effects of mindlessness on health behaviour may be far reaching and the model described in this paper can be used to develop appropriate interventions.

Hospital administrators' tolerance of staff needlestick injuries.

Objective: To survey hospital administrators regarding their opinions of an acceptable frequency of staff needlestick injury and the frequency that would prompt additional preventive action.

Design: A simple anonymous questionnaire sent to 960 administrators with one reminder. Data were collected regarding hospital size and community role, whether human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients had ever been treated, presence of an infection control practitioner, estimation of the proportion of staff vaccinated against hepatitis B, and opinions as to the acceptable frequency of needlestick accidents and the accident frequency, requiring additional action.