Epidemiological Aspects of Needle Stick Injuries among Nurses in a Military Hospital

Abstract

The most frequent way of transmission of various diseases such as HBV, HIV and HCV is exposure to sharp tools. The purpose of this work was to identify epidemiological aspects of Needle Stick Injuries among nurses. In this cross - sectional study 100 nursing staffs in a military hospital were chosen as a sample. Personal and professional information collected by a valid and reliable questionnaire, and data were analysed using SPSS 17 software. The prevalence of occupational exposure to sharp tools of hospital waste was 41%. Mean age and mean of experience years in nurses were 34.7± 5.88 and 10.99 ± 5.52 years respectively. About 63% of nurses in disaster reported the matter to the Committee on Hospital Infection Control. Most impressed by the syringe needle was 46.3%. Working load and needle recapping were the main causes of the damage due to exposure to the sharp objects, 26.8 and % 31.7 respectively. The relationship between occupational exposure to hospital sharp tools and age, experience, education and place of work was significant with P= 0.006, 0.017, 0.027 and 0.008 respectively. According to the complications of sharp tools, reduction of sharp components requires regular training courses for staff, proportion of the number of work shifts, strict implementation of treatment protocols, modification of the current inaccuracy procedures, access to adequate equipment’s and safe and an effective mechanism for reporting of occupational accidents in all of the sectors.