Knowledge, attitude and practice of injection safety among Benue State University Teaching Hospital healthcare professionals

Abstract

Background: Globally about 16 billion injections are given in a year, 40% of which involves reuse of needles and syringes without sterilization. This predisposes both the recipient and the health worker to blood borne infections like Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), Hepatitis etc. States like Benue, which has HIV prevalence above the national average, probably have higher risk of these infections. This study assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of injection safety among the healthcare professionals of Benue State University Teaching Hospital.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study using stratified sampling technique was carried out on 141 health professionals of the institution between January to March 2014, using structuredself-administered questionnaire. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 with statistical significance set at p-value of p <0.05.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 35.42 (SD±8.72) years. The respondents were predominantly males (56.7%) and nurses dominated the cadre. Overall, the respondents had good (70.2%)knowledge, positive (87.2%) attitude and appropriate (79.8%) practice scores respectively, but there were some misconceptions about the diseases transmissible by unsafe injection. The commonest unsafe injection practice among the respondents was recap of needles (19.1%). The relationship between the nature of injury and the cadre of health care professionals was statistically significant (P=0.004).

Conclusion: There is disproportionate gap between the level of knowledge and the practice of injection safety, hence continuing medical education among health professionals is recommended to reduce the rate of needle stick injuries.