Study of blood exposure-related mental health illness among clinical nurses

Abstract

Nurses are subjected to high amount of stress in the medical setting, and work-related stress often leads to mental problems. This study aims to investigate the mental health status of nurses exposed to blood through needlestick injuries. A total of 302 nurses working in the hospital of Guangdong, China, participated in this study. Out of the 302 nurses, 140 did not experience any needlestick injuries during the previous week, whereas 162 nurses experienced needlestick injuries. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-28 Standardized Questionnaire, which uses physical, anxiety, social function, and depression subscales, was used in this study. No significant difference between nurses exposed to blood and nurses not exposed to blood was found in terms of gender, age, length of employment, and civil status (P > 0.05). Results from the GHQ-28 Standardized Questionnaire showed that 75.9% (123/162) of nurses exposed to blood were suspected to suffer from mental disorders, whereas 40% (56/140) of nurses not exposed to blood were suspected to suffer from mental disorders. The mean mental health scores of nurses exposed to blood and those not exposed were 8.73 ± 7.32 and 5.69 ± 5.70, respectively. From these results, we can conclude that blood exposure from needlestick injuries leads to higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in nurses. This finding highlights the importance of providing efficient, adequate, and appropriate support services after nurses are exposed to blood from needlestick injuries.

Nursing Students’ Occupational Health and Safety Problems in Surgical Clinical Practice

“…Surgical clinics are environments with highrisk closed units such as operating rooms and intensive care units (ICUs), where critical thinking, quick decision making, and urgent interventions are intensive (Erdağı & Özer, 2015). Nurses, who are the most important members of the health care team, who provide direct care to the patient in surgical units, are exposed to numerous occupational hazards, such as drugs, chemicals, infectious agents, lack of materials and ergonomic conditions, heavy working, and excessive workload, and also they have physical (needle stinging, penetrating stab injuries, musculoskeletal disorders and pain, cancer resulting from night work, hearing loss, and varicose veins), chemical (skin problems, latex allergies), biological (infectious diseases), and psychological (stress, burnout syndrome, mental health problems, sleep disorders) problems (Anandh et al, 2015;Attar, 2014;Attarchi et al, 2014;Bernal et al, 2015;Broadwater & Brueck, 2017;Elewa & Sahar Banan, 2016;Hamnerius et al, 2018;Rathore et al, 2017;Samulin Erdem et al, 2017;Xiong et al, 2017).…”

Degree of Nurses’ Compliance to the Guidelines of Occupational Exposure to Pathogenic Micro-organisms; A Review of Literature

“…In the study of Ganczak and Szych (2007), compliance to the use of gloves whenever was necessary accounted to 83%, while the use of double gloves in surgeries was only 12% in the survey of Jeong and colleagues in 2008 [11,12]. Furthermore, 9 studies showed that 50.9% of nurses repositioned the needle cap from a used syringe [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. On the contrary, Stein et al noted that 99% of nurses reported that they cover a used needle cap and 85% reject them to special equipment [7].…”

“…Nurses have the highest rates in this type of injury than other health professionals [17].The observed high occupational exposure to pathogens among nurses could be attributed, among others, to the failure of observing safety precautions. The guidelines for nurse prophylaxis, generally, define measures concerning the organization of monitoring infections associated with health care facilities, health staff assessment on the state of vaccination, staff training in infection control and special measures for protection from blood-transmitted diseases such as the use of gloves (e.g., vaccination against hepatitis B) [14].…”

Assessing Health Threatening Problems among Nursing or Midwifery Students during the Clinical Education Course in Turkey

“…Health workers may have mental health problems such as anxiety and depression related to the work environment (58, 59). Occupational exposure has also been reported to have psychological effects (31, 60) In nurses experiencing exposure to occupational hazards, the prevalence of anxiety is higher (26), and nurses experience feelings of anxiety, anger, and guilt (60, 61). Similarly, there are similar mental problems in the studies conducted in the students (31, 62).…”

“…Because of these hazardous environments, the health of many trainees and workers are compromised each year (12, 13). Health workers may be exposed to hazardous environments and drugs such as chemotherapy drugs and gases, (14–16) violence (12, 17), needlestick injuries (NSI)(18–20), skin problems, latex allergies (21), musculo-skeletal system problems (back injuries) (22, 23), cancer from working at night (24), loss of hearing (25) and mental health problems (26). Especially midwifery and nursing students can experience stress (27, 28) and anxiety (29) because of their underdeveloped skills, lack of information, assignments with deadline, being exposed to occupational hazardous as other professional health workers in the clinical environment (30).…”