Needlestick and sharps injuries among nurses in a tropical Australian hospital

Abstract

Although needlestick and sharps injuries (NSI) represent a major hazard in nursing practice, most studies rely on officially reported data and none have yet been undertaken in tropical environments. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional NSI survey targeting all nurses within a tropical Australian hospital, regardless of whether they had experienced an NSI or not. Our overall response rate was 76.7%. A total of 39 nurses reported 43 NSI events in the previous 12 months. The most common causative device was a normal syringe needle, followed by insulin syringe needles, i.v. needles or kits and blood collection needles. Half of the nurses' NSI events occurred beside the patient's bed: drawing up medication was the most common reason. Nurses working in the maternity/neonatal wards were only 0.3 times as likely to have experienced an NSI as their counterparts in the medical or surgical wards. Overall, our study has shown that NSI events represent an important workplace issue for tropical Australian nurses. Their actual rate might also be higher than official reports suggest.

Hospital Safety Climate, Psychosocial Risk Factors and Needlestick Injuries in Japan

“…Similar to Japan, research from Turkey 9) , Australia 35) , Singapore 45) , Taiwan 33) , Saudi Arabia 46) and Korea 12) has indicated that disposable syringes and medication ampoules continue to present NSI risks for HCW. Butterfly needles were also a reasonably common cause of NSI in the current study, although this is not surprising, because butterfly needles are used much more frequently for blood drawing and IV infusion in Japan, than in other countries such as the US 44) .…”

“…Questions focussed on work support, mental pressure, time pressure, work responsibility and many others. NSI questions were based on similar research previously conducted across a variety of countries [33][34][35] . Questions focussed on the type of device which caused the injury, the number of times nurses had received such an injury in the previous 12-month, whether the item had been used on a patient prior to injury and whether nurses had officially reported to management any NSI they sustained.…”

Prevalence of needle sticks injury and its associated factors among Health Care Workers in Bahir Dar city Health Centers, Northwest Ethiopia

“…Most reported sharps injuries involve nursing staff, laboratory staff, physicians, housekeepers, and other HCW. 8 World Health Organization report showed that 16,000 HCV, 66,000 HBV & 1000 HIV may have occurred worldwide. 9 The annual estimated proportion of HCW exposed to blood born pathogen globally were 2.6% for HCV, 5.9 % for HBV, and 0.5 % for HIV.…”

Needle-Stick, Sharp Injuries, and Its Related Factors among Nurses of Imam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah, Iran

“…This study showed that sharp injuries were higher among female nurses (P=0.025). In other studies, there was no significant association between injury and gender (Haddadi, Afhami & Karbakhsh 2007;Smith et al 2006b;Bijani, Sotudeh Manesh & Mohammadi 2011). The causes of injuries in female forces are due to their lower physical ability, fatigue, anxiety, stress of work, and loss of concentration.…”

“…In the studies of Smith et al (2006b) and Martins et al (2012), a few staffs did not report sharp injuries because of unawareness, insignificance of injury cases, or the fear of being accused of having no clinical skill. In our study, many staffs reported injury cases due to the high cause of informing authorities, holding at-service training, and preventive or prophylaxis treatments.…”