Evaluation of Injuries Involving Exposure to Blood and Body Fluids Among Hospital Healthcare Workers

Alay, Handan; Şahiner, Melek; Çelik, Neslihan; Kadıoğlu, Berrin Göktuğ

doi:10.4274/mjima.2017.8

Cited by 1 publication

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…In this study, physicians and students accounted for a large number of needle stick injuries coming from a wide range of clinical areas; this is similar to other studies. 6,8,9,11 Chadee et al found that wards maids, a type of cleaning staff, had a high rate of inoculation injuries, similar to the high rate of injuries seen in the "other" category of staff, who are cleaning and sanitation staff, in this study and others. 6,8 Mandić et al notably included an "other" category of staff which also included cleaning staff, similar to this study; the authors noted that this category of staff was most predisposed to stabs.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…6,8,9,11 Chadee et al found that wards maids, a type of cleaning staff, had a high rate of inoculation injuries, similar to the high rate of injuries seen in the "other" category of staff, who are cleaning and sanitation staff, in this study and others. 6,8 Mandić et al notably included an "other" category of staff which also included cleaning staff, similar to this study; the authors noted that this category of staff was most predisposed to stabs. 10 This study found that a majority of injuries occurred during recapping, drawing blood and action failure.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…This could have been due to training gaps, the need to properly orient or "on board" employees and inexperience of new staff. 5,8,9,11 Studies have noted that sharp injuries are high in nursing personnel, as found in this study. 8,9 In fact, Chadee et al in 1999 noted that most injuries occurred in nurses in Trinidad and Tobago.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…5,8,9,11 Studies have noted that sharp injuries are high in nursing personnel, as found in this study. 8,9 In fact, Chadee et al in 1999 noted that most injuries occurred in nurses in Trinidad and Tobago. 6 *Injury refers to sharp or secondarily, non-sharp incidents involving possible exposure to blood borne pathogens or other healthcare transmitted pathogens.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…Both studies looked at sharp injuries but Alay et al also looked at blood and body fluid exposure, similar to the secondary objective in our study. 8,9 The younger age group seen in this study could be due to lack of experience. The higher predominance of females, in this study could also have been due to the fact that females represent a larger part of the workforce, particularly in wards maids and nurses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

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The Epidemiology of Sharp Injuries in Healthcare Workers at a Trinidadian Community Hospital

Nagassar

2021

Caribb Med J

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OBJECTIVE To describe the epidemiology of sharp injuries, in healthcare workers, at the Sangre Grande Hospital (SGH) in Trinidad. A secondary analysis of non-sharp injuries was also done. Sharp injuries predispose staff to blood borne infections and thus are occupational infection prevention and control matters. Sharp injuries were observed to be a problem at the SGH. This study served to gather data for informed decision making. METHODOLOGY A retrospective descriptive study was done by reviewing all IPC reporting forms from reported healthcare worker injuries at the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Department for the period 2007-2017. All persons recorded as having being injured by sharps and secondarily, non-sharp occupational exposures, at the IPC department were included. We looked at employee case management including testing for blood borne Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and C virus (HCV), management and treatment. Simple descriptive statistics were used to present the findings. RESULTS All 148 notes were reviewed after which entries having greater than 10 missing data points or fields were excluded from the study analysis, leaving 138 notes. Age ranges were between 20 – 62 years with the mean age of the affected population being 33 years. A total of 104 (75.4%) females were injured compared to 32 (23.2%) males. Persons injured were mainly from the wards (n=81, 58.5%): internal medicine (n=46, 33.3%) and general surgery (n=22, 15.9%). Accident & Emergency (A&E) accounted for 10.1% (n=14) of the cases. Registered nurses (n=37, 26.8%), physicians (n=22, 15.9%) and students (n=20, 14.5%) were the main categories of staff affected. The highest number of events occurred between 10:00-11:00 in the morning [am] (n=29, 20.6%). The majority of these incidents (n=123, 89.1%) were first reported to SGH A&E. Most injuries occurred while disposing of needles (n=17, 12.3%). It was noted that 73 (52.9%) of the documented cases occurred on fingers. HIV, HAV & HBV tests were done in 136 (98.6%) of the 138 staff members recorded. In 120 (87%) events the source patient was tested. A total of 114 (84.4%) persons had been vaccinated for HBV; 77 (58.8%) persons had post exposure prophylaxis (HIV) for one month. One (1.3%) person reported seroconversion after six months to positive HIV status. CONCLUSION Sharp injuries in employees were common in internal medicine and general surgery wards. These injuries were common in the late morning, on the fingers. Only one exposed employee seroconverted over the entire period.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%