Prevention of needle stick injury in the clinical setting among new registered nurses

ABSTRACT

Background: Needle stick injury is one of the greatest work-related health hazard, that registered nurses encounter on an everyday basis for example the risk of being exposed to dangerous and deadly blood borne pathogens through contaminated needle sticks such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis viruses. New registered nurses' lacking knowledge and skills regarding standard precautions are exposed to needle stick injuries from unsafe practices such as recapping of needles, manipulating used needles such as bending, breaking or cutting hypodermic needles and passing needles from one nurse to another (American Nurses Association 2002). Methods: This was a quantitative descriptive study. The dependent variable was the needle stick injury and the independent variables consisted of factors which influenced the occurrence of needle stick injuries among new registered nurses. The factors are practice, knowledge, resources and attitudes. The population was new registered nurses with less than three years' experience at the San Fernando General Hospital. A total of 120 new registered nurses were employed during the period under review and the entire population was used as the sample. A 26 item instrument was used to collect data which were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Findings: Most of the respondents 59 (49.2%) were between the ages 20-<30 years and 88 (73.4%) were female. The most common years' experience was 53 (44.2%). Almost half 54 (45%) respondents had experienced a needle stick injury with the most common exposure being while in use (17.5%) and recapping needles (215%). A total of 49 (40.8%) respondents had at least one to less than 3 needle sticks since employment and this was most common among staff on the medical wards. There was a moderate correlation between respondents knowledge about institution's policies and need for training (r0.409, p0.01) and strong correlation between their perception of the need to be more vigilant and the quality of the sharps that they are provided with (r0.913, p0.01). Conclusion: Avoidable practices such as non-adherence to standard precautions while using hypodermic needles are contributing factors to needle stick injuries. Prevention of NSI's should be an integral part of occupational health programs in the work place. Therefore, mandatory training and evaluation of health care worker's, knowledge and attitude regarding safety practices and proper use of available resources should be enforced when carrying out their duties in the clinical area.