ABSTRACT

Sharp injuries are the most common type of occupational injury among healthcare personnel especially among Nurses due to the nature of their work exposing them to blood borne pathogens such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV and other infectious diseases. The objective of this study is to assess the prevalence of sharp injuries and measures of curbing them among nurses in a tertiary health institute in Benin City. . An Epidemiological Retrospective research design was used in carrying out this study. Sample size of 278 nurses was selected in a tertiary health institution in Benin from diferent wards and units using a simple random technique and a well-structured questionnaire. The result of the study showed a fairly high (65.11%) prevalence of sharp injuries among nurses in UBTH (Figure 1). Among these, 62.09% had sharp injuries only once in the past one year while 32.03% and 5.88% had sharp injuries 2-5 times and above 5 times in the past year. The most prevalence activity associated with sharp injuries was breaking of drug ampoules which was responsible for sharp injuries in 56.18% of cases, followed by recapping a needle and administering IV/IM injection responsible for 46.07% and 43.26% of cases respectively. The least prevalence of sharp injuries was observed during disposal of sharp boxes (16.85%) and sorting of surgical instruments (19.10%). In the assessment of measures in place to curb incidence of sharp injuries, the study revealed a high level (82.18%) of adherence to safety majors to prevent sharp injuries. The study also shows that the factors involved in high prevalence rate in UBTH was lack of protective pads for breaking of drugs ampoules, non-adherence to use of one hand recapping technique or do not recap rule. Therefore it is recommended that protective pads should be made available for use and training on use of one hand recapping technique or do not recap rule.

Keywords: Sharp injury, sharps, prevalence, nurses, curbing, measures.