Study of needle stick injuries among health care workers at a tertiary care hospital.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among health care workers at a tertiary care hospital in Goa to study the problem of needle stick injuries. A structured questionnaire was used to interview the study participants at their work place. Participants were asked to recall needle stick injuries in the preceding 12 months. Factors such as work experience, type of procedure, action taken following injury etc were also studied. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS software. Around 34.8% (200/575) of the Health care workers had experienced a needle stick injury in the last one year. Needle stick injuries were equally distributed across different work experience periods. Hollow bore needles were responsible for 77.5% of needle stick injuries followed by suturing needles (19.2%). As far as use of personal protection was concerned only 58% of the health care workers were wearing gloves at the time of the injury. There is therefore an urgent need at the hospital level to have a uniform needle stick injuries policy covering safe work practices, safe disposal of sharps, procedures in event of needle stick injury, training including pre-employment training, monitoring and evaluation of needle stick injuries and procedures for reporting needle stick injuries.