Assessing the healthcare Worker's Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice toward Health, Safety, and Environment in an Educational Hospital Affiliated by Iran University of Medical Sciences (2012-2013)

Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) in hospital settings is of importance due to the economic, Humanity and ethical issues. To stablish this system in hospital, the attitude and knowledge, and eventually the practice of hospital staff toward this issue is important. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, ad practice of healthcare workers toward health, safety, and environment.
The study had a prospective descriptive cross-sectional design. The study population included 435 physicians, nurses, para-clinic and administrative staff working in a teaching hospital affiliated by the Iran University of Medical Sciences. Knowledge, attitude, and practice of included participants were assessed using a standardized 60-item questionnaire.
Findings: The knowledge, attitude, and practice of participants differed between different job categories and between different hospital wards. In overall, higher level of education found to be significantly related to the higher attitude toward the health safety and environment (P The findings of the study emphasize a suboptimum level of knowledge and practice in the field of health safety, and environment among hospital staff. We suggest using continuing education standards, positive and negative reinforcements, and constant evaluation and monitoring as effective tools for increasing the knowledge and practice of hospital staff in health safety and environment.