Injuries as exposure events in providing medical services by nursing staff

INTRODUCTION

Among medical staff, nurses are particularly vulnerable to occupational exposure since they provide direct patient care and perform medical activities which often involve using sharps.

AIM

The objective of the study was to examine the frequency of injuries and their causes in nursing.

METHODS

A diagnostic survey was employed using an original questionnaire. The study was carried out from 3rd March to 2nd April 2017. The study group comprised part-time nursing students. 107 respondents participating in the study worked in out-patient (28%) and in-patient (72%) healthcare. Most of the respondents were aged 41–50 (34.6%).

RESULTS

61.7% of the respondents were injured at work. The injury reporting rate was: 19.7% always, 22.7% often, 30.3% rarely, and 27.3% never. The most commonly mentioned types of injuries included: prick (51.5%), cut (28.8%), scratch (10.6%), prick and cut (9.1%). The incidence of injuries varied. 48.5% of the studied people declared fewer than 5 incidents, 31.8% quoted 5–10 injuries, 6.1% recalled 11–20, 13.6% did not remember such a situation. For nurses with longer seniority, there is a significant increase in injuries (p=0.029). Sources of injuries were most often: injection needle (35.9%), ampoule with medicine (23.3%), pen (7.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

Not all occupational exposure cases are reported by nurses. Seniority determines injury incidence among nurses. The longer the seniority, the more common the injuries. The needle causes injuries most frequently.

New validated HPLC methodology for the determination of (-)-trans-paroxetine and its enantiomer in pharmaceutical formulations with use of ovomucoid chiral stationary phase

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The new HPLC methodology for the chiral separation of tamsulosin enantiomers on amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) stationary phase

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Structure-retention relationship in a series of chiral 1,4-disubstituted piperazine derivatives on carbohydrate chiral stationary phases

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Direct separation, identification and quantification of epimers 22R and 22S of budesonide by capillary gas chromatography on a short analytical column with Rtx®-5 stationary phase

The conditions for separation, identification and quantitative determination of epimers 22R and 22S of budesonide by capillary gas chromatography (GC) with FID detection and two various sample injection methods, namely split-splitless and cool on-column, were established. In analysis helium as carrier gas and Rtx-5 capillary column of 7 m in length along with stationary phase Crossbond 5% diphenyl-95% dimethyl polysiloxane were used. The individual epimers were identified under specified conditions by using standard samples of different declared concentration of each epimer under investigation: (1) 51.2% of epimer 22R and 47.3% of epimer 22S, and (2) 95.1% of 22R and 4.4% of 22S, as well as Pulmicort, a preparation containing micronized budesonide as an active substance. It seems that good parameters of preliminary validation achieved by the proposed methods can confirm its suitability for quantitative analysis purpose. The retention times obtained for epimers 22R and 22S, depending on injection technique are about 7.7 and. 8.3 min for split and, approx. 10.3 and 10.9 min for cool on-column. The limits of detection and quantitation are 5.7 and 6.2 ng, for 22R respectively, and 4.3 and 4.8 ng for 22S. The linearity is maintained for concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 0.20 mg/ml. The quantitative analysis features of repeatability, high precision and accuracy confirmed by the obtained results and its statistical evaluation.

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