Main Menu Browse by Day or Program Author Keywords

581 RISK FACTORS FOR PERCUTANEOUS INJURIES IN THE NURSING TEAM OF A BRAZILIAN HOSPITAL

Saturday, March 20, 2010
Grand Hall (Hyatt Regency Atlanta)
Silvia RMS Canini, PHD , University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Elucir Gir, PHD , University of sao Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Luiza T. Facchin, Rn , University of sao Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Alcyone A. Machado, PHD , University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto Medical School, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Suzana Alves de Moraes , University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Isabel Cristina Martins Freitas , University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Background:

Although standard precautions are considered an important measure to prevent occupational accidents with biological material, they have not been fully incorporated into the health professionals’ daily practice.

Objective: the study aims to identify percutaneous injuries correlates in the nursing team from a Brazilian tertiary-care hospital.

Methods: A case-control study was conducted from January 2003 to July 2004, including 200 cases and 200 controls. Cases and controls were paired by gender, professional category and work place. After the participants were characterized according to possible confounding variables (descriptive phase), association measures were obtained through crude and adjusted odds ratios, which were estimated by points and 95% confidence intervals. The method  used to obtain the adjusted effect measures was multivariate logistic regression developed in SPSS 10.0 for Windows.

Results: The results shown six predictors of percutaneous injuries: “recapping needles” (OR 9.48; CI(95%): 5.29-16.96); “hours worked per week ³ 50 hours” (OR 2.47; CI(95%): 1.07-5.67); “years in nursing practice ≤ 5 years” (OR 6.70; CI(95%): 2.42-18.53); “work shift in night” (OR 2.77; CI(95%): 1.35-5.70); “low self evaluation of risk” (OR 10.19; CI(95%): 3.67-28.32) and “previous percutaneous injuries” (OR 3.14; CI(95%): 1.80-5.48). The occurrence of needlestick injuries is not only or exclusively a matter of the individually related risk/protective factors. Those injuries are also heavily influenced by the environment in which the worker is inserted as well as by the organizational structure in the institution, which should provide all the conditions to implement the recommended and recognized safety measures to their employees. It is known that the traditional training transmits information but does not always entice behavior changes. One of the great challenges in the occupational injuries area is to make workers to perceive risk situations and to convince them to adopt safe behaviors in their daily practice.

Conclusions: The results support the recommendation of applying effective strategies to preventing percutaneous injuries in the nursing team working on tertiary-care institutions.