Assessment of mental workload and relationship with needle stick injuries among Isfahan Alzahra hospital nurses

Accidental needle stick injuries (NSIs) are the greatest hazard that threatens health care workers (HCW). The prevalence of these injuries due to exposure to physical demands and mental stress has increased in the work place. This study aimed to assess the relationship of mental workload with needle stick injuries among nursing staff.
This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 175 randomly selected nurses who worked in the Alzahra Hospital in Isfahan, Iran in the winter of 2015. For collecting data, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), measuring mental load specialized questionnaire and Accidental needle stick injuries questionnaire was used. Data were collected and analyzed by independent t-test, chi-square and Mann- Whitney using SPSS 20..
Independent t-test showed that the mean in the dimensions of mental and temporal demand of work had a significant difference between those nurses who had needle stick and those who had not needle stick injuries (P Health care workers, especially Hospital staff nurses in addition to the physical needs, are often exposed to other related factors including psychological needs, official disputes, pressure of time, lack of social support, conflicting needs, loss of work speed control, etc. which play a decisive role in the prevalence of needle stick accidents in between them. Therefore ,hospital managers must identify the causes of these demands is important step in the control of the accidents .