Assessment of Work Related Hazards among Nurses in General Hospital
Mervat Hussein Ahmed Aly;
Abstract
Occupational hazards are the risk to the health of a person arising out of employment. Healthcare workers provide a large array of services with multiple exposures that can result in serious short- and long-term health consequences and hazard exposures. These exposures have been linked with outcomes such as cancers, injuries, and infectious diseases. Nurses are exposed to various occupational hazards like stress, allergic reactions, higher noise levels, percutaneous exposure incidents, radiation, musculoskeletal disorders, legal hazards, etc. Moreover, the interactions with patients, physical strain and financial pressure are negatively related to psychological wellbeing of nursing professionals. Although identification of risk to healthcare workers has been explored in several industrialized nations, very little data is available from developing countries.
This study was aimed at assessing the hospital hazards by their frequency and types, and assesses knowledge as regards work-related hazards among nursing staff in the general hospital. A descriptive design was used in carrying out the study on a convenience sample of 135 full-time nurses working at the Arab Contractor Medical Center in Cairo. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire covering the socio-demographic data and job and health characteristics of the nurse, the safety measures the workplace provides, the perception of work-related hazards, the knowledge of various types of work-related exposures and health hazards in the nursing profession, the safety practices used, and the actual exposure to 25 different types of hazards at work. The tool was finalized after experts’ opinions and pilot testing. The fieldwork lasted from October 2012 to January 2013.
The main study results demonstrated the following.
Nurses’ mean age was 31.9 years with a mean of 12.2 years of experience, slightly more than half (54.1%) with secondary nursing school diploma, and married (57.8%).
A few of the nurses (11.9%) were having chronic diseases, and 20.7% reported having an occupational disease, mostly infectious, with a mean sick leave days of 8.9; the majority had HBV vaccination (80%), and 11.1% were smoking.
The working hours’ median was 48, with 65.2% working overtime, and 73.3% working shifts; 77.8% had attended training courses in occupational health in nursing.
The nurse to patient ratio was on average 1.0±0.9, and each nurse had about 8 patients under her own charge.
As regards workplace safety, the measures most provided were the personal protective devices (91.9%), information on prevention and control (83%) and pre-employment examination (80.7%); conversely, only 19.3% of the nurses reported having periodic medical examination.
In total, only 11.1% of the nurses reported complete workplace preventive measures.
The most frequently perceived hazards were back, neck, and shoulder pain, ankle sprain and fractures (94.1%), followed by infectious diseases (92.6%), psychological stress (86.7%) and varicose veins (83%).
The least perceived work-related hazards were those of exposure to gas leak (20.7%), and sexual violence (12.6%).
Overall, 80.7% of the nurses had low perception of work-related hazards.
The study findings indicated generally low percentages of satisfactory knowledge particularly regarding the definition of work-related hazards (18.5%), and of infectious diseases as work-related hazards (29.6%).
Only 25.9% of the nurses had total satisfactory knowledge of the work-related hazards.
Concerning safety practices, the majority of the nurses reported adequate use of protective clothing (97%), hand washing (96.3%), disposal of waste (92.6%), and review of guidelines (91.1%). Conversely, the least adequate practice was concerning the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders (60%).
The majority of the nurses (88.1%) reported adequate total safety practice.
As regards the actual exposure to work-related hazards, the most commonly reported were sharps injury (78.9%), needle stick injury (62.1%), and low back pain (61%).
This study was aimed at assessing the hospital hazards by their frequency and types, and assesses knowledge as regards work-related hazards among nursing staff in the general hospital. A descriptive design was used in carrying out the study on a convenience sample of 135 full-time nurses working at the Arab Contractor Medical Center in Cairo. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire covering the socio-demographic data and job and health characteristics of the nurse, the safety measures the workplace provides, the perception of work-related hazards, the knowledge of various types of work-related exposures and health hazards in the nursing profession, the safety practices used, and the actual exposure to 25 different types of hazards at work. The tool was finalized after experts’ opinions and pilot testing. The fieldwork lasted from October 2012 to January 2013.
The main study results demonstrated the following.
Nurses’ mean age was 31.9 years with a mean of 12.2 years of experience, slightly more than half (54.1%) with secondary nursing school diploma, and married (57.8%).
A few of the nurses (11.9%) were having chronic diseases, and 20.7% reported having an occupational disease, mostly infectious, with a mean sick leave days of 8.9; the majority had HBV vaccination (80%), and 11.1% were smoking.
The working hours’ median was 48, with 65.2% working overtime, and 73.3% working shifts; 77.8% had attended training courses in occupational health in nursing.
The nurse to patient ratio was on average 1.0±0.9, and each nurse had about 8 patients under her own charge.
As regards workplace safety, the measures most provided were the personal protective devices (91.9%), information on prevention and control (83%) and pre-employment examination (80.7%); conversely, only 19.3% of the nurses reported having periodic medical examination.
In total, only 11.1% of the nurses reported complete workplace preventive measures.
The most frequently perceived hazards were back, neck, and shoulder pain, ankle sprain and fractures (94.1%), followed by infectious diseases (92.6%), psychological stress (86.7%) and varicose veins (83%).
The least perceived work-related hazards were those of exposure to gas leak (20.7%), and sexual violence (12.6%).
Overall, 80.7% of the nurses had low perception of work-related hazards.
The study findings indicated generally low percentages of satisfactory knowledge particularly regarding the definition of work-related hazards (18.5%), and of infectious diseases as work-related hazards (29.6%).
Only 25.9% of the nurses had total satisfactory knowledge of the work-related hazards.
Concerning safety practices, the majority of the nurses reported adequate use of protective clothing (97%), hand washing (96.3%), disposal of waste (92.6%), and review of guidelines (91.1%). Conversely, the least adequate practice was concerning the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders (60%).
The majority of the nurses (88.1%) reported adequate total safety practice.
As regards the actual exposure to work-related hazards, the most commonly reported were sharps injury (78.9%), needle stick injury (62.1%), and low back pain (61%).
Other data
| Title | Assessment of Work Related Hazards among Nurses in General Hospital | Other Titles | تقييم المخاطر ذات الصلة بالعمل بين الممرضات في مستشفى عام | Authors | Mervat Hussein Ahmed Aly | Issue Date | 2015 |
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