STUDY OF WORK-RELATED ACCIDENTS WITH BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL AMONGNURSING PROFESSIONALS AT A HOSPITAL

Abstract

This study objectified to verify the occurrence of work-related accidents with biological material involvinghospital nursing auxiliaries and technicians. Eighty one employees participated, providing socio-demographic work dataand biological material-related accidents within the last two years. From the researched workers, 17.3% had sufferedaccidents. By comparing the workers who have not suffered accidents with the ones who have, the only statisticallysignificant variable (p=0.04) was the employment time in the institution (p=0.04), associated with less than 2 years ofemployment time and the occurrence of accidents. Concerning the 16 accidents mentioned, all of them were percutaneous,most of them involving blood and fingers, having the needle as the main responsible during material disposal and mostemployees were not using personal protection equipment. The nursing professional must be oriented about work risksand the importance of biosafety.

Keywords

• Nursing
• Exposure to biological agents
• Accidents occupational
• Occupational health
• Hospitals