Abstract
Objectives: This study aimed to examine the proportion of needle stick and sharp injuries (NSSIs) among healthcare workers at King Hussein Medical Center (KHMC), Amman, Jordan. Methods: All NSSI reports referred from departments at KHMC to the Preventive Medicine Department between 2013–2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Proportion of NSSIs were calculated and stratified according to age, gender, job title, place and site of injury and the procedure/task during which the injury occurred. Results: There were a total of 393 NSSIs. A significant association was found between the proportion of NSSIs and all tested variables (P <0.001). The reported proportion of NSSIs was highest among nurses (39.7%) followed by cleaners (36.3%), physicians (10.4%), other workers (7.4%) and lab technicians (5.9%) during the study’s six-year period. Hospital wards were the most common locations (46.1%) where injuries took place. Injuries also occurred most frequently during medical waste collection (38.2%). Conclusion: The proportion of NSSIs was highest among nurses and cleaners. Safety policies and training among high-risk groups should be reviewed to reduce the risk of NSSIs. Multicentre studies at a national level should be conducted to examine whether this study’s findings reflect national trends.
Publication Date
9-3-2020
First Page
e54
Last Page
62
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Saadeh, Rami; Khairallah, Khaled; Abozeid, Hussein; Rashdan, Lama Al; Alfaqih, Mahmoud; and Alkhatatbeh, Obaidallah
(2020)
"Needle Stick and Sharp Injuries Among Healthcare Workers: A retrospective six-year study,"
Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal: Vol. 20: e54-62.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18295/squmj.2020.20.01.008