Prevalence of injuries and reporting of accidents among health care workers at the University Hospital of the West Indies

Abstract

Objectives: This study investigated the knowledge, awareness and practices of health care workers towards universal precautions at the University Hospital of the West Indies. The study also examined the prevalence of injuries experienced by health care workers, as well as incidence of accidents and compliance with post-exposure prophylaxis. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted in September and October 2007. A 28-item self-administered questionnaire was provided to two hundred health care workers including medical doctors, medical technologists, nurses and porters to assess knowledge and practices regarding universal precautions, prevalence of injuries and incidence of accidents. Results: Almost two-thirds (62.3%) of the respondents were aware of policies and procedures for reporting accidents while one-third (33.2%) were unsure. All nurses were aware of policies and procedures for reporting accidents, followed by medical doctors (88%) and medical technologists (61.2%). The majority (81.5%) of the respondents experienced splashes from bodily fluid. Over three-quarters of medical doctors (78%) and two-thirds of nurses (64%) reported having experienced needle stick injuries, while the incidence among medical technologists was remarkably lower (26%). The majority of the respondents (59%) experienced low accident incidence while just over one-tenth (14%) reported high incidence. Eighty four respondents reported needle stick injuries; just under two-thirds (59.5%) of this group received post-exposure treatment. Conclusions: The study found that majority of health care workers were aware of policies and procedures for reporting accidents. Splashes from body fluids, needle stick injuries and cuts from other objects were quite prevalent among health care workers. There is a need for monitoring systems which would provide accurate information on the magnitude of needle stick injuries and trends over time, potential risk factors, emerging new problems, and the effectiveness of interventions at The University Hospital of the West Indies and other hospitals in Jamaica.

The fundamental role of educational intervention on improving health care workers’ knowledge, attitude and practice towards infection control precautions

“…our results higher than those reported by Duerink et al 9 (44%) at two teaching hospitals on the island of Java, Luo et al 10 and abdulraheem et al 11 observed that only 50% of the HCWs had knowledge of universal precautions. The results of Vaz et al 12 were near to our results (64.0%). our result was lower than those reported by Danchaivijitr et al 13 who reported that 94.9% of medical doctors in Thailand had good knowledge of standard precautions.…”

Seroprevalence and risk factors for Hepatitis B and C among health care workers

“…This study revealed that occupational cut injury occurred in 75% of HCWs. This is higher than similar studies in the University Hospital of the West Indies and Georgia (occupational cut injury prevalences of 43.5% 22 and 38% 12 respectively), and is higher than that reported from eight major health facilities in Kampala, Uganda 23 and in a tertiary care academic health organization of North India 24 (prevalence of 17% and 9.9% respectively). This finding could be attributed to the fact that being a tertiary care hospital there is a high workload.…”

Factors affecting nurse interns’ compliance with standard precautions for preventing stick injury

“…Following these measures have crucial affects on the safety of both patients and HCWs, but unfortunately, despite the simplicity and clarity of these measures, compliance level with standard precaution among nurses and NIs is still low. [14,15] Compliance is the level of precision and constancy in following prescribed standard protocols to achieve the desired outcomes. [16] Various factors can influence the level of compliance including cultural, economical and social factors.…”