Assessment of Radiation Hazards and Safety as Perceived by Health Care Team at NCI

The purpose of study was assessing the staff perception about radiation hazards and its safety measurements in Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine department at National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. Descriptive co relational design was used in the research. A convenient sample includes 103 members, nurses 33, doctors 25, physicists 12 and technicians 33. Data were collected by two tools; one is questionnaire sheet about radiation hazards and safety, 2nd was an observation checklist for radiation unit structure. Study results showed that Majority of staff has license to work in radiation unit, more than half mention that no radiation safety training program given before starting work. 78.8% of nurses moderately perceived for the safety measures of radiation, only 3% of them highly perceived for the especial precautions in the unit. While 90.9%, of technicians highly perceived the radioactive material storage. Moreover half of doctors moderately perceived the safety measures. In addition most of physicists 91.7% highly perceived the radioactive materials resources, while the majority of them 75.0% were moderately perceived the especial precautions in radiation unit. These results indicate the need to increase some of staff knowledge and awareness about the radiation hazards and safety through training programs, develop ideal physical structure environment for radiation unit and continually updating, developing the administration structure and policies of safety in the unit and establishment of safety committee for staff in the institute.