Awareness of Health Care Workers about Infection Control Practice and Occupational Safety at a Tertiary Care Hospital, Cairo, Egypt

Background: Biological occupational hazards in the form of needle stick injuries can occur anywhere within the health care organization. Worldwide, the number of health care workers annually exposed to sharp injuries contaminated with HBV, HCV or HIV is estimated at 2.1 million, 926,000 and 327,000 respectively. Objective: To measure the knowledge and attitude of a group of health care workers regarding methods for prevention of needle stick injuries and to identify their response in case of needle stick injury. Methods: A cross-sectional study included 98 physicians and 224 nurses. They filled a questionnaire including past history of occupational inquiries, knowledge on some aspects of infection control, their attitude towards occupational safety activities at their workplace and their knowledge of the actions they should do in case of needle stick injury. Results: Most of the participants were females and nurses, (42%) had history of needle stick injury. Unfortunately, most of participants had insufficient knowledge about some aspects of infection control and negative attitude towards hospital activities for occupational safety. Moreover, their knowledge on actions to be done in case of needle stick injury was inadequate. Pre-employment training, work duration and working in non-surgical departments had an impact on their knowledge. Conclusion: More programs have to be directed towards raising knowledge on occupational safety and their right to know about both types of hazards and actions to be done in case of exposure is of great importance