Insulin-Injection-related Needle-stick Injuries Among Clinical Nurses at a Tertiary-Care Hospital in China

Abstract

Needle-stick injuries (NSIs) are the main type of occupational injury experienced by health-care workers worldwide.They are widely reported in the literatures, but there have been few studies of insulin-injection-related NSIs. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for insulin-injection-related NSIs among clinical nurses working at a Chinese tertiary-care hospital. Methods: We used a questionnaire to investigate the incidence of and risk factors for insulin injection-related NSIs in a tertiary-care hospital in Guangzhou, China. The study involved 576 nurses from various departments, including endocrinology, internal medicine other than endocrinology, surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology. Results: Approximately half (54%) of the participants reported having >5-years of experience in clinical nursing, and 66.3% reported that they had received training on injection safety at work. While 16.0% of the nurses had experienced an insulin-injection-related NSI before, 58.7% of them did not report it to the relevant hospital department. When NSIs occurred, 69.6% of nurses were not wearing gloves, and 75% of the needles had been contaminated by patients. The largest proportion (34.8%) of the NSIs occurred when the needle cap was being re-attached after an injection. Multivariate logistic analysis showed that participation in training (odds ratio [OR]=0.605) and being a diabetes specialist nurse (OR=1.814) were independent factors related to the incidence of insulin-injection-related NSI. Conclusion: Insulin-injection-related NSIs are common among clinical nurses. Hospital management departments need to improve their training of nurses in preventing and handling NSIs, provide appropriate safety equipment, and implement simpler procedures for reporting NSIs.