Abstract

BUENO MARRERO, Luis E.; ALVAREZ TOSTE, Mireya; GUANCHE GARCELL, Humberto  and  GARCIA ARZOLA, Esteban. Prevalence of sharp device lesions in the nursing staff of intensive care and surgical service units. Rev Cubana Hig Epidemiol [online]. 2007, vol.45, n.2. ISSN 0253-1751.

With the objective of determining the prevalence of sharp device injures in the nursing staff of intensive care and surgical service units from a clinical-surgical hospital located in La Habana province, a cross-sectional study was performed in december, 2005. Questionnaire provided information about antecedents to injures in the previous week, characteristics of the accident, injure report, hepatitis B immunization, and preventive practice knowledge. To this end, the statistical technique of frequency distribution analysis was used. Mean comparison (t test) served to analyze continuous quantitative variables. Sixty two male and female nurses were surveyed to find out that 14 (22,6 %) had some sharp device injures that occurred more often in surgical units (33,3 %) than in intensive care units (15,8).Generally, 64,3 % of the staff did not report the injures; 72,6 % put away the needles; 87,1 % was hepatitis B -immunized, 53,2 % states they mastered one-hand technique, 30,6 % did not perform the correct procedure after an injure; the youngest and unexperienced staff was more exposed to the risk of being injured and the more experienced at service had higher risk of accident. A high prevalence of sharp device lesions was demonstrated, thus observing poor surveillance of lesions and lack of knowledge about injure-preventing practices.

Keywords : Sharp device injures; biological security; hospital risks; prevalence of occupational lesions.