Comparison of awareness about precautions for needle stick injuries: a survey among health care workers at a tertiary care center in Pakistan.
BACKGROUND
Needle stick injuries (NSIs) have the potential of causing Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, which is constantly adding to the burden of chronic liver disease in our country. It poses a risk to Health Care Workers (HCWs) and the patients they deal with. In order to limit the spread of these viruses, it is imperative that these HCWs be fully equipped with knowledge regarding prevention of NSIs and dealing with one, regardless of their designation. We therefore aimed to assess and compare the level of awareness about precautions for needle stick injuries amongst all those greatest at risk.


METHODS
This was a cross- sectional study carried out at Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. A 23 itemed self-administered questionnaire was given to hospital staff including doctors, lab technicians and nurses via convenience sampling, in various departments. Data was analyzed via SPSS 18 software and a p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.


RESULTS
A total of 198 responses were taken for this study, out of which 70 (35.4 %) were doctors, 70 (35.4 %) nursing staff and 58 (29.3 %) laboratory technicians. Of all HCWs, 101 (51 %) knew that the standard method of discarding needles is without recapping. 159 (80.3 %) were still recapping needles. 180 (90.9 %) HCWs were vaccinated against Hepatitis B. 36 (18.2 %) were aware that blood should be allowed to flow after an NSI and site of prick should be washed with an antiseptic.


CONCLUSIONS
The awareness was found to be very low amongst all HCWs. It should therefore be made compulsory for all HCWs to attend proper preparatory classes by the infection control department at the time of employment in order to improve the level of awareness and ensure safe practices.
Department of General Surgery, Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Abdul Rafay
AR
Qazi
Department of General Surgery, Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Furqan Ali
FA
Siddiqui
Department of General Surgery, Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Salman
S
Faridi
Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Urooj
U
Nadeem
Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Nida Iqbal
NI
Umer
Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Zainab Saeed
ZS
Mohsini
Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Muhammad Muzzammil
MM
Edhi
Dhaka Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Mehmood
M
Khan
Awareness; Doctors; Health care workers; Laboratory technicians; Needle stick injuries; Nursing staff