Investigation On Occupational Injuries And It's Related Factors Among Nursing Students

Objective: nursing staff face the risk of sustaining occupational injuries worldwide, while nursing students are thought to be at even high risk of occupational injuries as they lack work experience, may be responsible for their young age, low psychological endurance, and have poor knowledge of precautionary measures and of correct post–exposure behaviour. The aim of this study was to obtain data concerning the occupational injuries occurring to nursing students and the occupational protection taken by them, discuss the risk factors of occupational injuries among nursing students and the mean protective measures we should take, and finally study the effective way of decreasing occupational injuries to better protect nursing students.Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to nursing students who were practicing in the Hebei General Hospital, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University and The Forth Hospital of Hebei Medical University. The questionnaire included sociodemographic data (age, sex), the incidence of different kinds of occupational injuries and the influence of the occupational injuries on themselves. Data were double entered into an SPSS version 13.0 database. A statistical evaluation was performed using descriptive analysis and the chi-squared test. Differences with a P value less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.Results:1Overall, 305 subjects completed a questionnaire. The response rate was 100%. 296 valid questionnaires were used in final analysis. Among them, 45 were returned from Undergraduates, 211 from junior college students and 40 from technical secondary school students.2 The occupational injuries investigated by this survey included mechanical injury, physical injury, psychological injury, chemical injury and biological injury. Among them, mechanical injury took the first place in teams of incidence and psychological injury affected nursing students mostly.3 Overall, 85.5% of respondents had sustained at least one needle stick injury in the past, there was no statistically significant difference among nursing students with different educational background,while injuries caused by other sharp objects showed significant difference. Almost 81.8% students had occupational exposure to blood, and the percentages of exposure to excrement, body fluids and Secretion for students were 74.3%,70.6 %and 60.8% relatively. The rate of long term exposure to disinfectant was35.5%, the proportion of sprain was about 8% higher than that. In contrast, other types of chemical and physical injuries were very low, most of which were below 10.0%. Some students suffered violence, had words with their teacher or classmate, others would feel nervous, have a irregular life, all of those influenced the nursing students to some extend both in body and mind.4 The Investigation also showed that 74.4% of students could dispose the sharp objects immediately, whilst safety devices and enforce didactical interventions with practical training and incident reporting provided to nursing students were very few, consequently, students level of knowledge about reporting such accidents was low. Despite this, most of students can got help from their teacher and classmates, they could also well adjust themselves to the new situation.5 It had illustrated that needle stick injury had a definite relationship with poor knowledge about occupational protection, low awareness of self-protection and sleep insufficiency. As for most students, the three risk factors which influenced their health significantly were pressure caused by occupational stress, HIV and HBV infection and the transmission of Tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. And only 7.4% of students regarded hospital as a safe working environment. But the unsafe setting did not affect their effective care to the patients.Conclusion:The incidence of mechanical injury and biological injury were relatively high, and many students suffered sprain, so more attention should be paid on this issue. Most students have poor knowledge of precautionary measures and of correct post –exposure behaviour, education and training in self-protection should therefore be initiated at the earliest opportunity. And the employer should provide safer devices and enforce didactical interventions with practical training.