Risk of exposed to biological material of nursing team at outside hospital

Background: The risks related to exposure to biological material present in health care in the hospital are well known and reliably. However, there are still few Brazilian studies covering this issue outside the hospital environment.

Objective: The aim of this study is to characterize the actions, which involve transmission of microorganisms, conducted by the nursing of ten Family Health Units (FHU) and one Home Care Unit (HCU).

Methods: This is an exploratory study of a descriptive-quantitative nature carried out at ten Family Health Units (FHU) and one Home Care Unit (HCU) in São Carlos city (São Paulo State, Brazil). The data had been collected by means of the accompaniment of the actions using a check-list elaborated by the authors. This instrument was divided for procedures and in each one of them it was observed the accomplishment of hand-washing (before and after), the use of gloves, and adequate disposal of cutting/piercing objects. The data had been analyzed with descriptive statistics. This work was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. 

Results: There were observed and analyzed 406 health actions that involved risk of transmission. The procedures, in both places, were distributed as follows: 25% blood collection, 21.5% glucose tests, 16% intramuscular and subcutaneous medication, 5.2% endovenous medication, and 32.3% dressing. The average rate of adherence to standard precautions as regards procedures involving needles was 27.9% in the FHU and 6.5% in the HCU in relation to hand-washing, 41.4% regarding glove-wearing in the FHU and 11.3% in the HCU, 88.8% in the FHU and 29.2% in the HCU with reference to adequate disposal of cutting/piercing objects.

Conclusions: During the accomplishment of this study no accident with biological risk was observed. It may be concluded that these nursing professionals are subject to potential biological hazards because of frequent manipulation of needles and exposition to blood. Characteristics of the domiciles, such as physical space, can facilitate or make it difficult to the accomplishment of procedures and adhesion to the precautions, so they must be object of future studies. These results contribute for increasing the knowledge on biological risk in the nursing assistance, particularly at the home care unit.