Factors Associated with Needle Stick and Sharp Injuries among Health Care Workers

Exposure to blood borne pathogens is considered as a common occupational hazard among health care workers all around the world. The aim of the current study was to investigate the factors associated with needle stick and sharp injuries among health care workers of an academic hospital. The current cross-sectional study of health care workers a teaching hospital designed based on a census sampling technique from 20 March to 20 April 2012. All personnel were required to fill out the forms they received from the investigators and fill them out on the occasion of any case of needle stick injury. All the obtained information was analyzed using SPSS software version 16. The results of our study demonstrated that the frequency of needle-stick injury was 18.8% (97 persons) the mean age of the affected individuals was 30.49±7.04 years. Significant relationship was observed between the risk of needle stick injury and age, gender, work experience less than 2 year and education. The majority of needle-stick injuries happened at the ICU and CCU. Personal protection devices (face masks, gloves, etc) were used by 67% of the affected individuals. Low frequency of needle stick injuries in our study can be attributed to the following factors: 1-the periodic preventive educational program for staff, especially the new freshmen nurses. 2-the existence of a comprehensive program followed by occupational health department and hospital infection control unit.