Occupational Health Hazards among Health Team Workers in Intensive Care Units

Abstract

: Health team workers are more susceptible to occupational health hazards. The study aimed to assess occupational health hazards among health team workers in intensive care units. Design: descriptive analytical research design. Setting: the study was conducted at Shubra General Hospital and Shubra Health Assurance. Sample: Purposive sample. Tools of data collection: Two tools for data collection. 1ST Tool: Questionnaire sheet that developed by the investigator. It constricted of 4 parts, part 1 concerned with demographic characteristic, part 2 concerned with health care workers' knowledge regarding occupational health hazards, part 3 includes occupational health hazards exposure at workplace, and part 4 covered health care workers' practice toward health measures in workplace. Second tool observational checklist for observing occupational health hazards at work place and include physical examination sheet. Results: Health team workers' knowledge regarding occupational hazards revealed total satisfactory knowledge of 74.0%, health care workers' knowledge regarding methods of safety measures showed a total satisfactory knowledge of 84.4%, physical hazard total exposure 86.6%, psychological hazards' total exposure 77.3 %. Chemical hazards total exposure 63.6%. Social hazards total exposed 68.8% and accidental hazards total exposure 72.7%. Biological hazards total exposure 63.6%, 46.7% of health care workers exposed to sharp tools more than 10once, 11% from health care workers exposed to hepatitis c (HCV), 1.9% exposed to hepatitis B virus (HBV). Conclusion: The study concluded that more than half of health team workers have the knowledge regarding occupational health hazards in intensive care units and less than half of the health team workers knew the meaning of occupational health. There were highly statistically significant relation between total knowledge and health worker practice. Recommendation: Regular health program should be conducted regarding the use of personal protective equipment and periodic physical examination.