Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Healthcare workers, in the course of their professional activity, are potentially exposed to chemical, physical and above all biological risks. The aims of our study were to investigate the extent and distribution of needle-stick and sharp injuries (NSIs) in healthcare students, the behaviours and circumstances most frequently associated with NSIs, the frequency of NSI reporting and the adherence to the post-exposure protocols.
Methods This study involved, through an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire, undergraduate and postgraduate students attending postgraduate medical schools and healthcare professional schools who underwent occupational health visits between January 2015 and July 2018.
Results Of the 642 students that participated in the study, 95 (14.8%) sustained an NSI during the traineeship and, of these, 59 (62.1%) reported the NSI to the occupational health service. NSIs were significantly more frequent in older subjects (χ²=9.853, p=0.020) and, among medical residents, in surgical residents (χ²=31.260, p<0.0001); moreover, occurrence of NSIs increased with increasing duration of traineeship (t=−2.051, p=0.041). Reporting of NSIs significantly increased with increasing age (χ²=12.543, p=0.006), with medical residents significantly under-reporting NSIs compared with undergraduate healthcare professional students (χ²=10.718, p=0.001) and among medical residents, those attending critical care units had the highest under-reporting (χ²=7.323, p=0.026).
Conclusions The study showed remarkable under-reporting, as well as a lack of preparedness of students for NSI preventive and post-exposure effective measures. Our findings underline that healthcare student education should be reinforced to ensure that safe practices are carried out when needles and sharps are involved, as well as stressing the importance of NSI reporting and adherence to post-exposure prophylaxis protocols.
- needle-stick injuries
- sharp injuries
- medical residents
- healthcare professional students
- nurses
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Footnotes
Contributors RP and CP designed the study. RP collected the data, contributed to the data analysis and interpretation and wrote the first draft of the article. AB and DP collected the data and contributed to its analysis. CP contributed to data interpretation and wrote the first draft of the article. MP was responsible for the data analysis and interpretation, and wrote the final draft of the article. CP and MP are guarantors for the study. All authors had full access to all of the data (including statistical reports and tables) in the study and can take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval This study was supported by Institutional Ethical Committee ‘‘Mater Domini” Hospital of Catanzaro, Italy. Number of the approval 45 (February 22, 2018).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.