Injection safety practices among nursing staff of mission hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: Injection safety has over the years become important in view of the many diseases that are transmitted through unsafe injection practice. The objective was to assess the knowledge and practice of injection safety by nurses in mission hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was the tool for data collection. All the nurses (122) who gave their consent in the mission hospitals were studied. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 13. The mean age of the respondents was 32.0 ± 8.9 years. The knowledge of injection safety among the respondents was poor (55.7%) while their practice of it was found to be good (48.4%) and excellent (47.5%). Knowledge was significantly influenced by the age, sex, and years of experience of the nurses. Twenty-eight (23.0%) and 40 (32.8%) respondents recap used needles regularly and sometimes respectively. Majority (71 [58.2%]) of the respondents had sustained needle stick injuries but only 4 (0.6%) respondents had a postexposure prophylaxis. This study showed that the knowledge of injection safety was poor among the nurses in mission hospitals in Benin City but their practice of injection safety was encouraging. There is need for the mission hospitals to organize regular training workshops on injection safety to improve the knowledge and practice of injection safety among their nurses.