Occupational Hazards And Associated Factors Among Nurses Working In Jimma Zone Public Hospitals, South West Ethiopia

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.