Exposure and Knowledge of Sharps Injuries among Medical Students in Seven States of Mexico

Abstract

Background: Medical students are vulnerable to accidental exposure to blood-borne pathogens when performing clinical activities. Knowledge of both the prevalence of exposure and necessary reporting procedures is important to minimize the risk of harm to medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of medical students from 19 universities from seven states in Mexico was utilized to determinethe prevalence of needle stick injuries amongst medical students and the associated reporting procedures. Results: We included 312 respondents; of these, 52.24% were men and 47.76% were women, and the mean age was 23.19 years (SD ± 2.11 years). Nearly all of them (94.23%) were medical students doing clerkships in public hospitals. Mean knowledge score of blood-borne pathogens was 3.6 (SD ± 1.16) on a scale of 0-10 designed specifically for this study. Thirty-five per cent of the respondents had sustained a needle stick injury at some point during their medical school training, and 33.97% reported some type of mucocutaneous exposure. Overall, the non-reporting rate of needle stick injury was 48.34%. Approximately 25% of the respondents were not familiar with reporting procedures in the event of a needle stick injury or mucocutaneous exposure; 61.50% had received information from their hospital about the standard protocol to follow after a blood or body fluid exposure. Conclusion: In this Mexican population of medical students, there is a high risk of suffering needle stick injuries during medical training. Furthermore, knowledge regarding prevention, evaluation, and reporting of needle stick injuries is suboptimal.

Knowledge about blood-borne pathogens and the prevalence of needle stick injuries among medical students in Serbia

“…Although most of these accidents are without adverse outcomes, a number of blood-borne pathogens (BBP), such as hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV) or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), can be transmitted through needle stick and other sharp injuries ( 2 , 3 ). Medical students, as the HCWs, are exposed mainly to needle stick and sharp object injuries in the course of their clinical activities during studying due to their undeveloped skills, restricted clinical experience, lack of knowledge and risk perception ( 4 - 12 ). This study is one of the limited number of studies especially in the eastern part of Europe, about medical students’ knowledge, practice, and attitudes toward occupational accidents.…”

The psychological impact of sharps injuries sustained by medical students

“…Worrying evidence suggests that many sharps injuries are not reported by medical students. The prevalence rate for non-reporting ranges worldwide from 40 to 48.34% (Shen et al, 1999;Deisenhammer et al, 2006;Sharma et al, 2009;Varsou et al, 2009;Camacho-Ortiz et al, 2015). There are various reasons why medical students do not report injuries, such as the injury was not one to cause exposure to an infection, the patient did not carry a transmissible infection, the medical student did not know whom to report the incident to, and the medical student believed it was not necessary to report the injury (Marusic et al, 2017).…”