Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

Problem statement: According to WHO survey 2002 more than 3 million of health care workers suffered a percutaneous injury through contaminated sharp object, which results in about 16,000 occupationally HCV infection, 66,000 HBV infections, and 1,000 HIV infections that had led to about 1,000 and significant disability. Nursing students are at high risk to NSI because they perform an exposure prone technique during their clinical training with little experience. Methodology: This is a cross sectional institutional based study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of nursing students in Khartoum city towards NSI with sample size of 261 students using stratified random sampling. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on knowledge about, and practice on needle stick injuries. Findings: About 23% of the nursing students suffered NSI, the needle stick injury occurred mainly as self-harm during recapping in the first attempt of a procedure using two hand technique. Most of the students did not report the incidence, two fifth of the students were not vaccinated against hepatitis B. About 64% always recap needles, and almost 80% use safety boxes and gloves when they use needles, 80% of the students knew that HIV, and HBV can be transmitted through the needle stick only 54% identified the risk of transmission of HCV. Conclusion& Recommendations: About 23% of the nursing students suffered needle stick injury mainly in the last year. More attention must be directed on effective educational training for nursing students in occupational health as part of curricula of all nursing schools to prevent needle stick injuries by encouraging adherence to standard precautions, encourage reporting of the needle stick if, and stress on the importance of PEP. Complete hepatitis B vaccination should be provided to all nursing students and good response to the vaccine should be evaluated before starting clinical training.

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