Injection Practices in Children: Knowledge and Perception of Healthcare Workers

Injections are one of the most common health care procedures. Each year some 16 thousand million injections are administered in developing and transitional countries. Due to unsafe injection practices 26 million years of life are lost each year.

To define the knowledge of health care providers about safe injection practice in children according to WHO standards.

We prepared a cross sectional study and included health care personnel in two university affiliated medical centers. Data about the knowledge of safe injection practices, as recommended by the World Health Organization, was collected using a previously designed questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS 13.0.

150 personnel answered the questions. Percentage of incorrect answers were as follows: use of gloves 92%, need to disinfect single dose vials 80%, disinfecting site of muscular injections 86.7%, safe needle disposal 70.7%, recapping the needle 56%, and the optimal site for intramuscular injections in young children 12.7%. 72.7% were not familiar with auto-disable syringes. There was no significant difference in the belief that injection is better than oral medication between doctors and nurses (p>0.05). Almost 80% of doctors and more than 50% of nurses believed that parents preferred injection prescriptions for their children.

Our findings revealed a serious lack of knowledge about safe injection practices among health care providers albeit doctors or nurses. We recommend that instructions about safe injection practices should be included in the medical and nursing curriculum. Moreover, improving communication skills between health care providers and their patients would prevent the misuse of all drugs including injections.