Assessing Nursing Student's Awareness towards Clinical Learning Environmental Safety

Abstract

Nursing students are prone to occupational hazards. Given the nature of nursing working environment, responsibilities and duties, nurses are on the frontline of numerous occupational hazards such as biological/infectious disease, chemical risks, environmental/ mechanical risks, physical risks, and psychosocial risks. The aim of this study was to assess nursing students' awareness towards safety of clinical learning environment. Setting: The study was conducted in technical institute at Banha university hospital which affiliated to ministry of health. Sample: Were 300 students. Tools: The data were collected using a questionnaire sheet designed by the researcher, after review of pertinent literature, namely questionnaire to measure the student knowledge about environmental safety in the clinical training. Results: showed that exposure to psychological hazards was the highest, while the lowest was the fire hazards. Furthermore, most of the participants were fully aware of using personal protective equipment. There were statistically significant differences between levels of awareness of nurse students regarding exposures to clinical hazards, physical environment and personnel protective, and their educational grade, also and student age. Conclusion: most of the nursing students were exposed to at least one of the five occupational hazards. Recommendation: The workplace settings should exert more efforts in the provision of efficient safety measures training, for nursing students in their clinical area as well as close supervision.