Occupational accidents by waste sharp devices in health care workers: an exploratory study

Abstract

Introduction. Health workers are exposed to various occupational risks, including accidents by waste sharp devices (WSD). These are a potential source of infections or contagious diseases, the reporting and monitoring of a worker is important in order to assess his/her health. The Committee on nosocomial infections (CIN) registers WSD acci­dents to known factors that triggered the exposure to risk.

Objective. Describe workplace accidents by WSD of health workers.

Material and methods. Descriptive, retrospective and transversal study of January 2012 to Decem­ber 2013.Non probabilistic sample (N = 63) inclu­ded health workers who reported accidents for WSD to the CIN. Data collected by identity indiffe­rent records of punctures and accidental injury with variables: date of the accident and report, data from the patient, occupation; place where occurred, the stab, lesion type, description of the accident and monitoring features. Data analyzed in the program Excel with descriptive statistics.

Results. Accidents occur most frequently in mor­ning shift (62%) to nurses (71%), reporting the same day of the event (50%). It happens more frequently in the area of hospitalization (23%) and coronary care unit (19%); 70% within the patient’s room. The common accident is with a needle (44%) and lancet (22%). At 12 months of the accident, 3% finished the monitoring.

Conclusions. Records of occupational accidents are more frequent in the nursing staff, for the care of the person in his/her room, mainly caused by needles. This leads to implement strategies that improve biosecurity measures and encourage the reporting of accidents.