Assessment of Nurse Interns̛ Knowledge and Practice &Attitude regarding Occupational Health Hazards

Abstract

Abstract Background: The occupational hazards and injuries in the nursing are higher than average compared with all occupations. In the medical profession, nurses constitute the largest group of healthcare workers, and experience a higher rate of workplace hazards exposure than other health care workers. The aim of this study: was to assessing nurse interns' practice and attitude regarding occupational health hazards. Design: A descriptive correlational research design. Setting: The study was conducted at four hospitals affiliated to Ain Shams University. Subject: The subjects of this study included 91 nurse interns. Tools of data collection: Data were collected by using three tools namely: Self - administered Questionnaire, Observation Checklist, and attitude scale. Results: Physical hazards were at a first rank level of hazards which more than two fifth of nurse interns were exposed to physical hazards as perceived by them, while chemical hazards was at the last rank level of hazards which lowest percentage of nurse interns were exposed to. Minority of nurse interns had satisfactory practice level regarding occupational health hazards. Score of nurse interns' attitude towards protection from hazards was generally low. Conclusion: There was a positive statistically significance correlations between total practice score and total attitude score regarding occupational health hazards among nurse interns. Recommendations: providing training program about occupational hazards and especially about protective measures, perform regularly routine check-ups of nurse interns to ensure occupational health, and further future must be made to investigate the relation between perception of occupational hazards and nurses’ safety practices.