Occupational Exposure to Potentially Infectious Biological Material Among Physicians, Dentists, and Nurses at a University

Occupational-Related Injuries and Associated Risk Factors Among Healthcare Workers Working in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review

Background

Occupational-related diseases or illnesses account for an estimated 2.4 million deaths worldwide every year. Currently, occupational hazards threaten healthcare workers' (HCWs) lives, safety, and well-being. Therefore, providing the prevalence and major causes of occupational-related diseases may enable injury reduction and the creation of safer working environments, which are important for providing higher quality services. The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of occupational-related injuries and associated risk factors among HCWs, particularly in developing countries.

Methods

The articles published in English were retrieved using a combination of Boolean logic operators (AND, OR, and NOT), Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), and keywords in electronic databases (SCOPUS/Science Direct, Web of Science, DOAJ, PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Google Scholars). Using Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tools, a quality assessment was conducted to determine the articles' relevance. In addition, the relevant articles were identified through a series of assessment and evaluation stages.

Results

About 721 studies were searched using electronic databases, of which 36 articles included 139,578 HCWs. The average prevalence of occupational-related injuries among HCWs in the career and previous last year accounted for 60.17%, ranged from 32% to 87.8% and 39.16%, ranged from 1.14% to 87%, respectively. The current study found that sex and hours worked, stress at work, occupation, age, training in infection prevention, use of universal precautions, recapping needles, ward work experience, staffing and resource adequacy, awareness, outdated guidelines, and previous exposure to sharp injury were statistically associated with occupational-related injuries.

Conclusions

This study revealed that 39% and 60% of HCWs experienced occupational-related injuries in the last year and during their career, respectively. Therefore, the appropriate measures must be taken to reduce the burden of occupational-related injuries by following standard precautions or occupational health and safety measures.

Compliance with standard precautions and associated factors among undergraduate nursing students at governmental universities of Amhara region, Northwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

Standard precautions are minimum infection control practices used to prevent the transmission of diseases and applied to all patient care. Nursing students are at high risk of exposure to occupational biologic hazards because they are obligated to provide care to patients admitted with unknown infection statuses. Compliance with standard precautions is an effective and efficient means of infection prevention. However, their compliance with standard precautions among nursing students is not known in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess compliance with standard precautions and associated factors among undergraduate BSc nursing students at governmental universities located in the Amhara Region, northwest Ethiopia.

METHODS

An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate BSc nursing students at the governmental universities located in Amhara Region, northwest Ethiopia, from April 15 to May 15, 2021. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 423 samples. Descriptive statistics were presented in text, tables, and charts. Multicollinearity and model fitness were checked. All variables were entered into multivariable logistic regression and a P-value of < 0.05 was considered to identify statistically significant factors.

RESULT

Around 221 (53.4%) of the study participants were males. Good compliance of nursing students towards standard precautions was 56.3% (95% CI = 51.4-60.9), which is significantly associated with good knowledge (AOR = 2.52, 95% CI = 1.61-3.94), a perceived safe workplace climate (AOR = 2.15, 95% CI = 1.24-3.71), and training or seminars related to standard precautions in the last six months (AOR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.01-2.29).

CONCLUSION

The overall compliance of nursing students with standard precautions was low, with nearly half of the nursing students failing to comply with standard precautions. The major factors associated with good compliance were good knowledge, a perceived safe workplace, and having seminars or training in the last six months. Training, enhancing knowledge, and creating a safe hospital environment are recommended to improve nursing students' compliance with standard precautions.

Personal Protection Equipment and Infection Control Procedures among Health Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Health workers have been particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is unclear which healthcare professions are more exposed. We search for information that can help identify health workers who are employed in exposure-prone professions and who, therefore, routinely wear and adopt strict infection control equipment and measures from other colleagues. Our purpose is to test the hypothesis that health professionals historically considered less exposure-prone are affected more severely by COVID-19. Taking dentists as an example of exposure-prone healthcare professionals, this study aims to analyze data on COVID-19-related deaths reported by the Italian board of doctors and dentists’ database to evaluate the number of COVID-19-related deaths of doctors and dentists in Italy from the beginning of the pandemic to 31 December 2022. As of 31 December 2021, out of 364 deaths, 38 were dentists, and of the remaining 326 doctors, 140 were general practitioners (GPs). The percentage of deaths among dentists, total doctors and GPs results in 0.06%, 0.09% and 0.33%, respectively, for the whole sample. Excluding subjects over 70 years of age, the corresponding values are 0.05%, 0.06% and 0.25%. Most of the deaths occurred in Lombardia, and the geographical distribution overlaps the trend of the corresponding general Italian population. Considering the outcome of “death”, dentists, despite being at high risk, are not particularly affected by COVID-19.

Assessing the awareness on occupational safety and health hazards among nursing staff of a teaching hospital

Introduction:

Occupational safety and health hazards in healthcare facilities play a significant role in the lives of care providers and also contribute toward quality patient care. Healthcare workforce gets exposed to physical, chemical, biological, and psychological hazards while discharging their duties, thus demanding for proper knowledge and awareness to address the same.

Objectives:

As nursing staff implement the care process directed by the physicians, the current study conducted at a teaching hospital aimed at assessing their awareness on occupational safety and health hazards.

Methodology:

A prospective study was conducted on a pilot basis for a period of 3 months in various nursing areas of the hospital. The questionnaire aimed at assessing the awareness of nursing staff on occupational safety and health hazards (5-point scale) was administered on nursing staff (150/170]. Total scores and percentage of responses were computed and the degree of correlation was observed as 0.4 between the participants age, educational qualifications, and total scores.

Results:

Participant response rate was 88% (150/170). Awareness on occupational safety and health hazards were shown as 43.4%- accidental falls at workplace, 42.7%- complete awareness on latex allergies, 52.7% on dermatitis and respiratory problems, 42% complete aware on accidental fires, 39.4%- burns, 36.7%- electric shocks, 59.4%- complete awareness on biological infections, 54%- respiratory disorders, 48.7%- skin allergies, awareness on usage of PPE to prevent: 67.4%-respiratory problems, 44%- accidental falls; 77.4%- importance of handwashing, 78% - significance of Hepatitis B vaccination, 71.4% - usage of first aid kits in minor accidents, 60%- reporting incidents, and 58%- documentation system for incident reporting. Sum total of scores revealed that 73.3% of the participants were found to be completely aware about all the components of occupational health and safety mentioned in the questionnaire. 22.6%- aware, 3.3%- moderately aware, and < 1% were slightly aware of the same.

Conclusions:

The study had highlighted the areas that require knowledge enhancement on occupational safety and health hazards which helps in adopting the best practices at workplace.