scholarly journals Comparison of awareness about precautions for needle stick injuries: a survey among health care workers at a tertiary care center in Pakistan

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Rafay Qazi ◽  
Furqan Ali Siddiqui ◽  
Salman Faridi ◽  
Urooj Nadeem ◽  
Nida Iqbal Umer ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Humaira Bashir ◽  
Syed Shuja Qadri

Background: Needle stick injury among health workers is regarded as an occupational hazard. Health care workers are at risk of having blood-borne diseases in case they are exposed to blood and other biological samples of the patients. Moreover, staff including doctors working in tertiary care hospitals has high work load which results in increased chances of getting these injuries. The aim and objectives of this study were to find out the prevalence of needle stick injury among different categories of health care workers. Authors also aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices associated with it.Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study design to know the prevalence of needle stick injury among various health care workers of Karpagam Faculty of Medical Sciences and Research, a tertiary level care hospital in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India. A total of 250 health care workers were selected for the study purpose. A self-designed, semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence of needle stick injuries and the factors associated with it.Results: A majority of health care workers (94%) knew about needle stick injury and 92% were aware that HIV can be transmitted through needle stick injury, 78.4% and 69.65% were aware of Hepatitis-B and Hepatitis-C transmission respectively. About 28.4% of subjects had encountered needle stick injury in their past. Furthermore, it was found that type of exposure and place of exposure was significantly associated with different categories of health care workers (p <0.001).Conclusions: Prevention of health workers against needle stick injury is the best possible way to prevent several bloods borne diseases. There should be a prevention programme which special focus on training of health care workers. Further strategies aiming at preventive measures and reporting of the Needle stick injuries accidents should be made compulsory among health care workers.


Author(s):  
Jurimoni Gogoi ◽  
Sultana Jesmin Ahmed ◽  
Hiranya Saikia ◽  
Ratna Sarma

Background: The objective of study was to determine prevalence of needle stick injuries among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital of Assam and to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices on needle stick injuries among them.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted from June 2016 to August 2016 amongst health care workers of a tertiary care centre of Assam. Sample size was calculated to be 90. A total of 10 departments were selected purposively based on their magnitude of risk exposure and the required sample size was allocated proportionally among these 10 departments. The required numbers of health workers from each of the ten departments were selected by using simple random sampling. A predesigned and pretested proforma was used to collect the data. Data were presented in terms of percentages and significance was tested using chi-square and Fisher’s exact test.Results: Prevalence of needle stick injury among the health workers was found to be 21.1%. Regarding spread of diseases after an accidental needle stick injury, 100% were aware of HIV, 98.9% were aware of Hepatitis B and 67.8% were aware of Hepatitis C. Regarding their attitude to report to in-charge medical officer, only 21.1% had reported about their injury. Around 58.9% of health care workers used gloves regularly for prevention of such injuries. Practice of recapping among the health care workers was 66.7% and out of total needle stick injuries, recapping contributed to 26.3%. While considering sharp waste disposal, 37.8% health care workers did not follow proper waste disposal guidelines. Only 26.3% of health care workers had done screening for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B after their injury.Conclusions: There is a need to have a pre-employment training to improve the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding accidental needle stick injuries among the health care workers. 


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravikumar Mantri ◽  
Febe Ranjitha Suman ◽  
R Krishnamoorthy ◽  
Vinodkumar Panicker

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document