Abstract:
Background: Every nurse around the world is at risk of developing occupational hazard as
a result of exposure to blood or body fluid and needle or sharp injures resulting in blood
born infection. However, to what extent this hazard occur among nurses in Jimma zone public
hospitals is not known.
Objective: To assess occupational hazards and associated factors among nurses working in
Jimma Zone public hospitals, South-West Ethiopia, 2014.
Methods: Institution based Census was conducted on 318 nurses working in Jimma zone
public hospitals from March 1-14, 2014. Data was collected by structured self administered
questionnaire and edited, entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported to IBM SPSS
Statistics Version 16 for analysis. Percentage, frequency and mean were calculated. Logistic
regression was done to see the association between the independent and the dependent
variables and variables with P-value less than 0.25 in the bivariate analysis were included in
the multivariate model. The result was summarized and presented in texts, tables, charts and
graphs.
Result: The mean age of respondents were 27.91 ± 6.84 years. Out of a total of 318 nurses
participated on study, about 161 (50.6 %) of them were males, 174(54.7 %) single and
173(60.7 %) were diploma holders. Majority, 249(78.3%) of nurses had occupational
hazards. Needle stick/sharp injury and blood/body fluid exposure occurs in 58.8% and 62.6%
of respondent respectively. The highest frequency of needle stick/sharp injury and blood/body
fluid exposure was occurred twice a year. The majority of occupational hazards were
occurred during morning shift. Sex, marital status, working unit, and training on infection
prevention were significantly associated with occupational hazards at p value< 0.05.
Conclusion and recommendation: There is high prevalence of occupational hazard among
nurses working in Jimma zone public hospitals. Working unit and training are work related
factors significantly associated with occupational hazards. Working unit specific safety
precaution and basic infection prevention in-service training is recommended.
