An accidental pricking of your own skin by a needle, as by a nurse picking up a used syringe.
An accident in which a used hypodermic needle pierces the skin of an individual other than the patient. This is a serious cause of injury and infection for health care professionals, especially since such diseases as Hepatitis B and AIDS can be spread this way. Thus special precautions, such as hard-sided, disposable needle waste units, have become almost universal in the United States.