Effect of Sharps Injury Prevention Program on the Incidence and Reporting of Sharp Injury among Nurses

Abstract

2 2 , Yangsan, Korea Background: This study aimed to identify the effects of a multifaceted needlestick injury (NSI) prevention program on changes in knowledge about bloodborne infectious diseases and postexposure coping, attitudes toward postexposure reporting, preventive measures, the number of NSIs, and postexposure reporting pre- and post-intervention among nurses. Methods: A total of 429 and 420 nurses participated in the pre- and post-intervention periods, respectively. The intervention was performed from April to September 2007, comprising NSI guideline education, the of containers with enhanced engineering, and the supply of safety devices. Results: The average score of knowledge about bloodborne infectious diseases increased significantly from 8.3 to 8.9 out of 14 points (P<0.001), but the change in score of knowledge about postexposure coping was insignificant. The average score of attitude toward postexposure reporting increased significantly from 8.9 to 9.6 out of 12 points (P <0.001). Preventive measures such as gloves are provided whenever needed (P<0.001), use one-hand technique (P<0.001), and needle containers are provided whenever needed (P=0.031) increased significantly. The number of NSIs decreased by 40.4%, and the postexposure reporting rate increased by 552.8%. Conclusion: The multifaceted NSI prevention program positively affected knowledge about infectious diseases and postexposure coping, attitudes toward postexposure reporting, preventive measures, the number of NSIs, and postexposure reporting after intervention. Therefore, we recommend that this program be applied to various healthcare workers in hospitals.