Introduction:

healthcare workers, especially nurses, laboratory workers and paramedics have a higher risk of exposure to needle-stick injuries, which is sometimes due to inadequate handling and hospital waste storage.

Objective:

to describe causes of needle-stick injury and preventive measures taken by healthcare workers.

Methods:

a cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey; 74 healthcare workers from the Almanzor Aguinaga Asenjo National Hospital and the Lambayeque Regional Hospital participated; data are presented as descriptive statistics; InfoStat 2019 was used for the statistical analysis.

Results:

the mean age of the respondents was 28.9 years (range 17-48); the majority were female (56.8%), and 43.2%, male. The 56.8% from the total number of respondents (42) had ever had a needle-stick injury, while 43.2% had not received injuries. The severity of the needle stick was mild in 51.4% of the cases, 6.8% was moderate and 41.9% had no injury.

Conclusions:

needle recapping, venous blood withdrawal and patients' sudden movement during an injection or a suture were the main causes of needle stick found in this study. A continuous training, the use of personal protective equipment, and following the proper disposal guidelines for sharp objects would help health workers to prevent this type of injury, and thus to avoid the transmission of infections through percutaneous blood.