title: Sharps injuries among medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical students may be at risk of sharps injuries for several reasons. These exposures can transmit a range of blood-borne pathogens including hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate medical students' knowledge regarding the prevention and management of sharps injuries and their experience of such exposures in the calendar year 2007.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, web-based, survey of fourth and fifth year medical students enrolled at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. All students were at the mid-point of their year of study. An invitation e-mail and two electronic reminders were sent, on specified days, to the study population. These contained a summary of the study and the link to the anonymous questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 395 medical students e-mailed, 238 (60%) responded. When compared with fourth year medical students, final year students had higher mean knowledge scores for sharps injury management (P < 0.01). Of total, 18% reported resheathing used needles and 31% reported disposing of sharps for others, indicating poor compliance with standard precautions. In the event of an injury, 29% stated that they would scrub the wound. Only 44% were familiar with policies for reporting exposures. In all, 11% of students had experienced at least one contaminated sharps injury in 2007 and, of those, 40% had reported the most recent incident.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical students are at risk of sharps injuries and their knowledge regarding the prevention and management of these exposures is limited: training on these issues should be increased.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. o.varsou@googlemail.com
authors.forename: Ourania
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Varsou
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lemon
authors.forename: Finlay D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Dick
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016602:Needlestick Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012308:Risk Management; D012606:Scotland; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires