A Study on Knowledge and Practices Related to Prevention of Needle Stick Injuries among Nurses in Intensive Care Units of Kandy Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Needle stick injuries (NSIs) in healthcare settings are a global issue. Risk of transmitting variety of blood borne pathogens to a health care worker is greatly increased with the exposure to NSIs. Incidence is high among nurses as they represents the majority of health care team of any country. This incidence is considerable high in a country like Sri Lanka which health care delivery is mainly take part by state in funded hospitals. Therefore, the evaluation of knowledge and practices regarding NSIs of nurses is important for planning to maintain their occupational health. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge and practices related to prevention of needle stick injuries among intensive care nurses. A quantitative descriptive study was designed and 136 randomly selected nurses were recruited into the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used as the tool for collecting data. Data was analysed using Microsoft Excel spread sheet. A total of 45% of study participants had sustained at least one (Needle Stick Injury) during previous year. Mean scores for knowledge and practices regarding prevention of NSIs were 63.5 % and 72.4 % respectively. At the knowledge assessment phase, 83 % nurses reported NSIs to infection control unit of the hospital. 62 % of nurses follow post exposure guidelines after NSIs. Practice assessment phase revealed that 64 % nurses are not recapping the needles after using. The questions for assessment of usage of gloves for venepuncture revealed 57 % of nurses using gloves every time of venepuncture while 28% using occasionally and 15 % not at all. Findings of this study shows high incidence of NSIs among ICU nurses of Kandy Teaching Hospital. Knowledge and Practices related to prevention of NSIs were inadequate compared to universal standards. Level of knowledge and practices should reach 100 % to achieve zero risk.