Abstract

The cross sectional study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of Needle stick injuries among nursing personnel, the circumstances under which these occur and
to explore the knowledge of nurses on prevention of needle stick injuries in selected tertiary care hospital at Chennai. The sample consisted of 80 Nurses. The results showed large percentage (49.09%) of nurses reported having had on NSIs in their last 12 months. The commonest clinical activity to cause NSI was emergency situation (76.36 %), followed by recapping of needle (51.82%) and suturing (44.55%).The practice of recapping of needle still prevalent among Nurses 78.18%).Some nurses also revealed that they disassemble the used needles before discarding (61.82%). It was alarming to note that only (61.82%) nurses knew about the post exposure prophylaxis and (72.73%) of Nurse didn’t report the Needle stick injuries. The present study showed a high occurrence of NSI in nurses with a high rate of ignorance and apathy. These issues need to be addressed, through appropriate education and other interventional strategies by the hospital infection control committee.

Key words: Knowledge, Needle-stick injury