Knowledge and practice of needlestick injury preventive measures among nurses of Sana'a city hospitals in Yemen

BACKGROUND: A needlestick injury is an accidental skin-penetrating stab wound from a hollow-bore needle containing another person's blood or body fluid, leading to infection of diseases transmitted by blood such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of knowledge and practice of needlesticks injury prevention measures and to estimate the incidence of exposure to needlestick injury among nurses working in the governmental hospitals in Sana'a city, Yemen. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study among a random sample of nurses (n = 259) were conducted. A pretested structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0. (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp). RESULTS: One hundred and fourteen (44%) respondents had poor knowledge of needlestick injury preventive measures, 75 (29%) had a fair knowledge, and 70 (27%) had good knowledge. The knowledge was significantly associated with hospital's name (P < 0.017). One hundred and ninety-eight (76.5%) respondents had a poor practice of needlestick injury preventive measures, (8.9%) had fair practice, and (14.7%) good practice. There was a statistically significant association (P < 0.001) between the knowledge and practice. Among all the respondents, 48.6% were vaccinated against hepatitis B. CONCLUSION: The practices and knowledge of needlestick injury preventive measures were low and occupational exposure to needlestick injury was a common occurrence in the study sample. This needs intensive programs to educate nurses on various aspects of needlestick injury preventive measures