Knowledge and practice of injection safety among healthcare workers in a Nigerian secondary healthcare facility

Abstract

Injection safety is important in today’s healthcare delivery particularly in settings with a high burden of blood-borne viruses. A safe injection protects the patient, the healthcare worker and the community from avoidable infections. In Nigeria, the national policy on injection safety and healthcare waste management were developed in 2007. The development of the policy was followed by series of training on safe injection and behavioural change. Despite this, high burden of unsafe injections was reported in many parts of the country. This study assessed the level of knowledge and practice of injection safety among healthcare workers in a secondary healthcare facility in north-western Nigeria. The study targeted all the healthcare workers employed in the hospital. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all the available healthcare workers. 
 A total of 80/88 questionnaires were returned and analysed. Majority of the respondents were male in their early career who were within the age range of 31-40years. The results showed that 88.75% of the healthcare workers correctly described injection safety as defined by the WHO. However, only 18.75% and 40.0% had good knowledge of risks associated with, and diseases that can be transmitted through unsafe injections respectively. In addition, only 25.0% reported safe injection practices. Reuse of syringe was reported by 37.50% of the respondents and over 88% recap used needles. Majority of the healthcare workers reported a previous history of needlestick injury which was not associated with their professional cadre p-value = 0.146.
 Despite injection safety training, inadequate knowledge with poor injection practice was found among the surveyed healthcare workers. The reuse of syringes and needles underscores the need for adequate and safe injection commodities at all levels of healthcare delivery. 
 
 Keywords: healthcare workers, injection safety, knowledge, practice

Assessment of Practice of Injection Safety among Nurses in a Tertiary Hospital in Osun State, Nigeria

“…Almost half (48.7%) of the respondents had Bachelor of Nursing Science while more than a third (37.3%) have over 10 years of work experience. This is similar to the report of a study among healthcare workers in Jigawa State, North-western Nigeria where majority were in their early careers whose work experience were within the range of 1 -10years (Abubakar et al, 2019). It was found out in this study that majority (60%) had good practice while the practice of injection safety was poor among 40% of the respondents.…”

The Factors of Needlestick Injury on Healthcare Workers at the Hospital of Bojonegoro

“…They revealed that needlestick injuries are caused by recapping with two hands and used needles that are not immediately thrown into the safety box. Another study also showed that there were still many healthcare workers who conducted unsafe actions such as closing the used needles and not disposed the needle into proper place (Abubakar et al, 2019) According to Assen et al (2020), healthcare workers who do recapping are 2.63 times more likely to have needlestick injury than those who do not. Therefore, recapping is an action that is not recommended to be conducted.…”