Survey of needle-stick injuries in paediatric health personnel of 5 University Hospitals in Tehran

Objective: to study the prevalence and correlates of needle-stick injury in the health personnel of the paediatric department of five university-affiliated hospitals in tehran, from april till june 2009.methods: cross-sectional questionnaire survey. physicians undergoing paediatric training and nurses working in the paediatric departments filled up a pre-designed questionnaire. relevant variables were compared between doctors and nurses.results: three-hundred fifty-five health personnel were enrolled. of these 49.3% had incurred needle stick injury at least once, 36.7% doctors and 54.9% nurses (p=0.002). nurses fared better than the doctors as regards knowledge about hazards of improper needle disposal. correct answers from doctors and nurses respectively were: 45.6% vs. 59.3% about needle separation and 41.9% vs. 81.2% about recapping, (p=0.02 and <0.001).doctors 11.1% and nurses 37.7% believed injections to be better than oral medication for children, (p<0.001), however, 68.9% of doctors and 46.6% of nurses believed that parents preferred injections to oral medicines for their children, (p<0.001). only 26.6% knew about auto-disable syringes. vaccinated against hepatitis b was present in 92.7%. doctors 58.7% and 55.3% nurses knew hbv to be the most common needle transmitted infection, (p=0.56).conclusion: needle-stick injuries are common among paediatric health care personnel and their knowledge about prevention strategies is suboptimal. most, health personnel are immunized against hepatitis b.