Experience of sharps injuries among health care workers in a Tertiary Health Facility in north-central Nigeria

Healthcare workers continuously face series of occupation-related risks in the course of their service delivery. Among these, sharps injuries remain a common source resulting into penetrating and laceration injuries with attendant health and life-threatening blood-borne infections. This cross- sectional descriptive study was carried out among 165 primary care givers of Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria to  determine the prevalence of sharps injuries among health care workers, the types of sharps commonly experienced and identify potential risk  factors in sharps injuries. The survey revealed a 46.1% prevalence of sharps injuries, considered high among study population. Needle stick injury was found to be the commonest with 75.0% prevalence followed by glass cut (23.7%), and IV cannula injury (6.6%) and scalpel blade wound (5.3%). Emanating sharp injuries sustained by the respondents include slight penetration (59.2%), superficial scrape (26.3%) and deep skin penetration  (14.5%). Events leading to the sharp injuries included recapping of needles (25.0%), surgical procedures (22.4%), refuse and waste collection (17.1%), administration of injection (11.8%) and during blood collection (10.5%). There were no association of experience of sharps injuries with professional cadres (pV = 0.2653), age (pV = 0.9780), sex (pV = 0.5381), years in service (pV = 0.5276) and marital status (pV = 0.2823). The wards recorded the highest proportion (32.1%) of all experienced sharp injuries experienced, followed by Labour/Delivery suite (15.2%), General Outpatient Clinic  (14.3%) and Operating Theatre (14.3%). The Emergency Unit and Laboratory followed with 12.5% and 8.0% respectively, while others had 3.6%. There was low awareness of availability of guidelines amongst respondents (31.5%), equipment for conveying waste materials (43.0%) and guidelines for ensuring safety against sharp injury (68.5%). Availability of personal protective materials was found amongst 47.3%, while only 52.1% have had on- the-job training / awareness of safety measures. There was however, availability of sharps collection box (78.8%). It is recommended that  comprehensive education on safety precautions be carried out to support other measures to stem the high prevalence of sharps injuries amongst  care providers in the hospital. Keywords: Sharps Injuries, Health Care Workers, Nigeri