Knowledge and Practice of Injection Safety among Nurses Working in Tertiary Health Science Institute of Eastern Nepal
Abstract
Background: Injections are among the nursing procedures which are commonly performed worldwide. Unsafe injections occur routinely in most developing world regions, implying a significant potential for the transmission of blood borne pathogen. Unsafe injections currently account for a significant proportion of all new hepatitis B and C infections. This study was done to explore the factors affecting knowledge and practices and to carry out observation in selected sample.
Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to conduct the study among 143 nurses working at selected wards of BPKIHS using self-administered questionnaire. The Medical, Surgical, Emergency, Orthopedic, ICU, SICU, Gynecology, Antenatal and Postnatal wards were selected purposively and the nurses were selected using population proportionate stratified random sampling. Observation of the 30 injection procedure was carried out .Collected data was analyzed using various descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The mean age of the respondents was 25.48±3.66 years. Poor knowledge was seen among 33.6% and good knowledge was seen among 66.4% of the respondents. Similarly, good practice was observed among 11.2% and excellent practice was observed among 88.6% of the respondents. Significant association was found between knowledge and socio-demographic variables i.e. total work experience (p 0.023), vaccination against hepatitis B (p<0.001)
Conclusion: The study concluded that one third of the nurses had good knowledge regardinginjection safety and majority of the nurses had excellent practice. The major lacking was seen related to the steps to be taken immediate after needle stick injury, practices of recapping of the syringes and coverage of the Hepatitis B vaccination. We recommend the authority of the study setting to prioritize these components. Further participatory observation studies are required to explore factors related to the knowledge and practices of safe injection practices.
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