Needle stick injuries among nurses of two tertiary care hospitals of Lahore: A KAP study

Objective: to estimate the prevalence of needle-stick injuries in female nurses of a public and private hospital and compare the findings. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted at one public and one private tertiary care hospital in lahore,pakistan,from march to june 2015,and comprised female nurses who were selected using non-probability purposive sampling. a structured questionnaire was used to interview the subjects. data analysis was done using spss 17. results: of the 386 participants,there were 193(50%) from each of the two hospitals. the prevalence of needle-stick injuries was found to be 85(44%) in public and 51(26.4%) in the private hospital. the highest proportion of injuries in both hospitals occurred while disposing or recapping needles,36(42.4%) and 32(62.7 %) in public and private hospitals,respectively,especially in the morning shift,i.e. 42(49.4%) in public and 32(62.7%) in private hospital. syringe needles were mostly involved,51(60%) in public and 45(88.2%) in private hospital. conclusion: the prevalence of needle-stick injuries was higher in public hospital. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.