The Incidence of Needlestick and Sharps Injuries Among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background

Needlestick injuries (NSIs) and sharps injuries (SIs) remain significant hazards in most healthcare facilities that expose healthcare workers (HCWs) to blood-borne pathogens (e.g., HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C). This study aims to review the incidence of NSIs and SIs in King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) and correlate this incidence with several parameters related to the event, including age, sex, length of work experience, type of injury, type of instrument causing the injury, type of activity during which the injury happened, nature of the job of the HCWs, and location within the hospital where the injury happened.

Methodology

This cross-sectional study involves all self-reported documents related to needlestick and sharp injuries among HCWs at King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from January 2017 to December 2020. The data of 389 reports of needlestick and sharp injuries detailing incidence and site, shift, type, and instrument related to the incidents were reported to the infection control department for coding and analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY, USA).

Results

Our data showed that NSIs/SIs could be caused by a wide range of objects used by healthcare workers, including needles, suture needles, scalpels, and sharp devices. Remarkably, the most common cause of NSIs was handling the sharp object (38.8%), followed by disposing of the sharp object (19.3%). Furthermore, nurses were found to be the highest at-risk category of HCWs experiencing NSIs (49.9%), while medical waste handlers (1.5%) and dentists (1.3%) were least likely to incur injuries.

Conclusion

This study sheds some light on the incidence rates of NCIs and SIs at KFMC and correlates these rates with several demographical, occupational, and experiential parameters related to these events.