Degree of Nurses’ Compliance to the Guidelines of Occupational Exposure to Pathogenic Micro-organisms; A Review of Literature

Abstract

Biological infectious hazards are the main factors which nursing staff deal with. It is fundamental rule, nurses to apply the guidelines of occupational exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms. The aim of this review was to examine the current literature on the degree of nurses’ compliance to the guidelines of occupational according to exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms. A review of literature was conducted on the Medline / PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases from 2000 to 2018. The keywords used in the bibliography search were, health care professionals, nurses’ attitudes, occupational exposure, and safety guidelines. The inclusion criteria were: a) studies that were directly related to the topic, and b) studies in English and Greek language, published in peer-reviewed journals. The search strategy revealed 1287 studies, 1260 excluded. Finally 27 studies were included. Nurses' compliance to the guidelines of occupational exposure to pathogenic microorganisms is described as unsatisfactory, and an emergency situation has been shown to be the major obstacle to follow the guidelines. It is necessary to understand the factors which contribute to nurse’s noncompliance. The results show that there is a need to propose measures that will positively affect the nurses’ performance. Keywords: Health care professionals; Nurses’ attitudes; Occupational exposure; Safety guidelines.