Evaluation of frequency of Exposure to Medical Sharp Devices among Nurses of a University Hospital

Introduction. Health care worker always are in risk of injury with sharp devices that can be a risk factor for HIV, HBV, HCV and other blood borne pathogen. Nurses experience the most injuries from sharp devices. Severity and fatality consequences of such exposure and limitation of effective treatment result in preventive planning. Therefore we design this study to evaluation of needle stick prevalence in nurses of a military hospital and investigate the risk factors.Material and Methods. In this descriptive cross sectional study, we used a two-page questionnaire. At the time of the survey 613 nurses were employed in this military hospital. The questionnaire include sections for demographic items (such as age, sex and years of experience), type of device that caused the injury, the event that lead to the NSI, and whether the event was reported. We also asked the location where the NSI occurred. The survey instrument was distributed and collected during October 2007.We used SPSS version 12 for evaluation of collected data.Results. Of 613 nurses occupied, 201 nurses were been needle sticked (32.78), 107 nurses were male (53.2) and 94 female (46.8) average age in time of N.S was 34 (SD: ± 6.5). in education level in 15 nurses was "kardan" (7.5%) and 178 nurses was license (88.6) and 8 nurses were in level of master of sciences. Needle of syringe was most common for N.S percent of 70.6% (142 cases). Blood sampling was most action for N.S with 49 cases (24.4%). The most common organ that injured was the second right hand finger with 60 cases (32.8%). The most common time of injuries was in morning shift. Conclusion. High rate of N.S and occupational exposure with Blood is a alarm for nurses, there for in field education and informing for reporting the all person who needle sticked.