KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES OF NURSES REGARDING INJECTION SAFETY AT BAHAWAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL (BVH) BAHAWALPUR, PUNJAB

Abstract

Introduction: World health organization reports that among 35 millions of health workers, two million get infectious diseases every year from which a huge majority consist of Hepatitis B, C and HIV AIDS. The employees in the health sector professionals like nurses carrying out their duties are repeatedly expose to these risk and potential sources of infection to their co-health care providers their patients and public. Methodology: The study was conducted at Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) Bahawalpur Punjab, from April 2015 to June 2015. This descriptive cross sectional study is based on the nurses involved in patient care in selected units of hospital where injection practices are most common, 383 nurses out of 420 involved in direct patient care the study population 178 was sample size. From the sampling frame of 383 nurses 178 were selected by convenience sampling technique, Sample size was estimated on the prevalence rate of unsafe injection practices in Pakistan 12% and estimated sample size 178 while 95% is confidence interval. The ethical approval from an internal review board of Health Services Academy will be obtained to conduct the study. Afterward, permission from the medical Superintendent of Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) Bahawalpur will be obtained. Written informed consent will be obtained from the persons before filling the questionnaire. Data was entered and analyzed through SPSS IBM version 21.0 Results: Majority of the respondent had knowledge of disease transmitted by unsafe injection 94.4% study population mentioned HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B & C respectively can be transmitted through unsafe injection practices. Only 68 (38.2 %) of participants wash their hands with soap and water before given injection for self-protection and patients benefit and about 110 (61.8%) respondent did not wash their hands before injection administering. About 30.9% study population was used sterile gloves before and after injection administering and other 123 (69.1%) nurses not prefer to wear gloves. Conclusion: Poor injection practices lead to large scale blood born pathogen transmission. All other unsafe injection practices, injectable medication or vaccination are the treatment of disease, not be the vector of disease.