Assessment of the Occupational Hazards and Safety Measures among Staff Nurses

Abstract

Background Nursing is one of the hazardous occupations, in which the risks are four times higher than those in other professions. Several protective safety measures must be taken to reduce exposure to occupational hazard. The aim of this study: assessing the occupational hazards and safety measures among staff nurses. Subject and methods: The study was conducted at Makkah hospital., using descriptive cross-sectional research on 185 staff nurses. Data were collected by using two tools namely, self -administered knowledge questionnaire and observation checklist for staff nurses' practice regarding safety measures. Results: findings revealed that slightly more than two third of them had satisfactory total knowledge regarding occupational hazards and total knowledge categories, and slightly more than half 51% of studied staff nurses had adequate total practice. Conclusion: it is concluded that there was statistically significant weak positive correlation between knowledge and practice; while there was no statistically significant correlation between staff nurses’ ages and their knowledge and practice. Recommendations: Training of staff nurses regards to occupational hazards and safety measures either in the form of workshops or seminars is recommended, enhancing knowledge and skills of safety measures through the orientation for newly staff nurses, and Further research is needed to investigate the effect of training intervention on knowledge and practices of safety measures of staff nurses.