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Volume 33, Issue 1

Original Article

Invisible Threat for Health Care Workers: Injuries Associated With Blood and Body Fluids

Merve Çağlar-Özer
Affiliations
  • Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, İnfeksiyon Hastalıkları ve Klinik Mikrobiyoloji Kliniği, İstanbul, Türkiye
,
Lütfiye Nilsun Altunal
Affiliations
  • Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, İnfeksiyon Hastalıkları ve Klinik Mikrobiyoloji Kliniği, İstanbul, Türkiye
,
Ayten Kadanalı
Affiliations
  • Ümraniye Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, İnfeksiyon Hastalıkları ve Klinik Mikrobiyoloji Kliniği, İstanbul, Türkiye
  • Health personnel
  • sharps injuries

Objective: This study aims to investigate the injuries exposing health care workers to blood and body fluids, distribution of such injuries by occupation and level of experience of the health care worker, and potential prevention strategies for reduction of such hazards.

Methods: Our study was carried out in a 836-bed tertiary care education and research hospital that employs 3612 healthcare workers. Data from 116 sharps injuries, which occurred in our hospital in 2018, were retrospectively analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 19.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). The data were obtained from the forms filled by the infection control committee and the workplace doctor.

Results: Analysis of the 116 injuries registered in one year by occupational groups, revealed nurses to be the most frequently injured group (42.2%), followed by auxiliary healthcare personnel (32.8%). Source was known in 56.9% of the injuries. In those cases, serological investigations revealed HBsAg positivity in 5.2%, anti-HCV positivity in 3.4%, and anti-HIV positivity in 1.7%. Of all injuries, 94.8% happened through percutaneous contact. Majority (75.9%) of the incidents occurred during day shifts (08:00-17:00), 15.5% occurred during evening hours (17:00-00:00), and 8.6% occurred during night shifts (00:00-08:00). Most of the injuries (46.6%) took place as an instrument was being removed from the field. Injuries most commonly occurred among professionals undergoing their first year of work experience (67.2%).

Conclusions: Injuries with exposure to blood and body fluids pose a major risk to health care workers. Compatible with the similar reports in literature, nurses were the most frequently injured professionals in this study. We suggest that attention should be paid to education and surveillance of waste disposal, specifically of contaminated sharps.

Klimik Dergisi 2020; 33(1): 62-6.

Cite this article as: Çağlar-Özer M, Altunal LN, Kadanalı A. [Invisible threat for health care workers: injuries associated with blood and body fluids]. Klimik Derg. 2020; 33(1): 62-6. Turkish.

  • 62-66
  • 10.5152/kd.2020.12
  • April 29, 2020
  • 1677
  • 662
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  • This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC
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