Knowledge and practices of radiation safety among healthcare workers in Ismailia city hospitals, Egypt

Abstract

Best medical practices needs health care workers to have an awareness of the possible threats from radiological imaging practices to allow for effective risk/benefit assessments and assurance that ionizing radiation is used skillfully. The aim of this study was to describe the knowledge and practices of health care workers regarding ionizing radiation safety and exposure. A cross sectional study was conducted at four hospitals in Ismailia city, and all health care workers (292) with potential exposure to radiation at the different hospital departments/units were included in the study. A structured selfadministered questionnaire was used. The mean scores of correct answers regarding knowledge and practice were as low as 20.6±5.7 and 3.6±4.1 respectively. There is a significant positive correlation between knowledge score and practice score (P<0.0001). The linear regression analysis showed that age, gender and specialty of participants are significant predictors of knowledge while age and working load of participants are predictors of practice. The majority of healthcare workers in this study lacked any specific training or education about radiation protection. We concluded that radiation safety knowledge and practice of participants were poor.

Radiation safety compliance awareness among healthcare workers exposed to ionizing radiation

“…This result agrees with the findings of Soliman et al, (2019), who clarified that their HCWs’ practices regarding wearing a personal monitoring bandage and lead apron were inadequate [ 26 ]. Our results partially disagree with a Turkish study by Zekiolu & Parlar (2021) who found that most samples regularly use a pocket dosimeter [ 28 ].…”

“…There was also a significant variation in the ages of the present study samples, as well as their level of education, years of experience, previous radiation training, and adherence to radiation safety practices. The results of Soliman et al, (2019) partially agree with the present result, as they reported that the age of the participants is an important predictor of radiation practices [ 26 ]. In contrast, in Anatolian, there was no significant link identified between radiation protective measures and long-term experience, daily fluoroscopy exposure, or training on the present knowledge and attitudes of surgical staff in urology about ionizing radiation [ 10 ].…”

“…Fostering a safety culture within healthcare organizations promotes open communication and continuous improvement This finding is concurrent with the study by Antunes-Raposo, et al, (2020), who evaluated the use of PPE among HCWs exposed to ionizing radiation and found that almost a third of them were nurses [ 25 ]. In contrast, an Egyptian study by Soliman, et al, (2019) aimed to describe HCWs’ knowledge and practices regarding safety and exposure to ionizing radiation and found that over than half of their study participants were physicians [ 26 ].…”

“…This result comes close to that of Alyousef, et al, (2023), who evaluated HCWs’ awareness of radiation safety and typical radiation dose and revealed that more than half of their sample had less than one year of work experience [ 27 ]. On the contrary, the results of Soliman et al, (2019) showed that more than two-fifths of their participants had more than 10 years of professional experience [ 26 ].…”

“…In the same context as a study done by Ahmed et al, (2021), who found that more than two-thirds of their study sample had poor radiation protection practices [ 4 ]. In addition, Soliman and College (2019) noticed inadequacies in self-reported radiation safety practices among all participants in their study [ 26 ]. Furthermore, this discovery is consistent with Hussein et al, (2022), who discovered that nearly two-thirds of their participants had inadequate ionizing radiation protection practices [ 22 ].…”