A more realistic risk would be part of the needle snapping off and remaining inside the padding under the vinyl - and this could conceivably prick and infect another patient (or a member of staff) later.
I’d be surprised if you could snap a needle off like that if you were trying. I used to (for some unknown reason) snap the needles off my syringes by bending them back and forth with the cap. Even that took a bit of effort. Though I suppose with millions of needles being used everyday it’s bound to happen at some point.
I had a nurse once stick one in the bed when I was getting a shot at a doctor’s office. Even when I was a kid it seemed odd. If they can’t reach the sharps container, I’d rather seem them practice the (can’t think of the actual name) method where you scoop the cap back on. But I know that’s a bit of a pain.
Maybe even have a paper towel sitting on the nearby desk and set it on there to be dealt with when their hands are free. There’s also the self closing/safety needles where you can just flick the cover over the sharp part, but I’m sure those are more expensive.
If the sharps container is inconvenient, the solution is to make it more convenient, not to use a seat as a temporary pincushion! Occupational exposure to HepB and other nasties is a serious thing, and I’d be nervous working in an environment where sharps were left out like that. If the working situation makes it impossible to go straight from patient to sharps container in a simple reaching motion, then safety needles should be used.
The nurse in the OP’s story had absolutely no excuse. I could maybe see the necessity of it in an EMS situation (although I don’t approve), but in a nice, stable doctor’s office, there’s no reason to keep the sharps container inconveniently out of reach. And yeah, safety needles are more expensive, but so is prophylactic treatment for HIV after an exposure.
As **outlierrn **said, it’s an old school practice. Was pretty common back in the day.
mmm