STUDY TO KNOW THE FREQUENCY OF NEEDLE STICK INJURIES AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS WORKING AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS AND ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS

Objective: The aim of our study is to identify the prevalence and associated factors that cause needle stick injuries in Health care workers work in the tertiary care hospital of Bahawalpur. Study Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration: The study was performed in the Bahwal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur for the period of one year from August 2016 to August 2017. Methods: After approval of the ethics committee, 285HCWs were selected randomly and selected for the study. The informed consent was obtained from the participants enrolled in the work. He was asked about his personal experiences with NSI. A pre-designed questionnaire was used as a data collection source. The standard version of SPSS was used to interpret the data. Counts and percentages of answers for all variable frequencies are calculated. Cross-tabulation was then performed to analyze the data. P values of 0.05 were statistically significant. Findings: Total no. Of the HCW included in the study, 285 were found to have 60% (171) doctors, 40% (n = 114) nurses and other paramedical staff (Figure 1). Among these participants, 64.9% (n = 185) were exposed to NSI. 57.3% (n = 106) doctors, 42.7% (n = 79) nurses and other paramedical personnel. 48.6% (n = 90) men and 51.4% (n = 95) women. The majority (63.2%, n = 117) had less than 5 years of experience and 9.2% (n = 17) had more than 15 years of experience. Single needle puncture was performed in 25.9% (n = 48) of the health care workers and 3 or more punctures were performed in the study period of 43.2% (n = 80) (Table 1). Health workers were responsible for more than one factor at a time from NSI (Table 2). Conclusion: In our study, health workers were found to be at increased risk for hepatitis B, C and HIV infections, especially in their pathogenicity compared to the general population. For this reason, strict measures must be taken to limit the spread of bloodborne diseases through needle injuries.