Although needlestick and sharps injuries (NSI) represent a major hazard in nursing practice, most studies rely on officially reported data and none have yet been undertaken in tropical environments. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional NSI survey targeting all nurses within a tropical Australian hospital, regardless of whether they had experienced an NSI or not. Our overall response rate was 76.7%. A total of 39 nurses reported 43 NSI events in the previous 12 months. The most common causative device was a normal syringe needle, followed by insulin syringe needles, i.v. needles or kits and blood collection needles. Half of the nurses' NSI events occurred beside the patient's bed: drawing up medication was the most common reason. Nurses working in the maternity/neonatal wards were only 0.3 times as likely to have experienced an NSI as their counterparts in the medical or surgical wards. Overall, our study has shown that NSI events represent an important workplace issue for tropical Australian nurses. Their actual rate might also be higher than official reports suggest.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-172X.2006.00553.x | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Human and entomological determinants of malaria transmission in the Lihir Islands of Papua New Guinea: A cross-sectional study.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis
January 2025
ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain.
Background: The Lihir Islands of Papua New Guinea, located in an area with high burden of malaria and hosting a large mining operation, offer a unique opportunity to study transmission. There, we investigated human and vector factors influencing malaria transmission.
Methods: In 2019, a cross-sectional study was conducted on 2,914 individuals assessing malaria prevalence through rapid diagnostic tests (RDT), microscopy, and quantitative PCR (qPCR).
The mental health impact of climate change on Pacific Islanders: A systematic review focused on sea level rise and extreme weather events.
Australas Psychiatry
January 2025
Laboratory of Psychiatric Neuroscience, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
Objective: This systematic review investigates the impact of climate change on the mental health of Pacific Island Nations (PINs), with a focus on identifying culturally tailored interventions and appropriate research methodologies to address these impacts.
Method: A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature up to May 18, 2024, was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) protocol and the Population, Interest Area, and Context (PICo) framework. Empirical studies on the impact of climate change on mental health in PINs were evaluated by using the Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs (QATSDD).
The Future Hospital in Global Health Systems: The Future Hospital as an Entity.
Int J Health Plann Manage
January 2025
Department of Health Services Research and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Health care is changing rapidly. Hospitals are, and will remain, an essential setting to deliver it. We discuss how to maximise the benefits of hospitals in the future in different geographic and health system settings, highlighting a series of cross-cutting issues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFactors associated with vaccine default in Southern Ghana based on data from the RTSS malaria vaccine trial in Cape Coast.
Sci Rep
January 2025
School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
Malaria has been a severe global and public health concern for the last couple of decades. Ghana, like many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is most affected by the disease, with children facing dire consequences. The recent introduction of the RTS, S malaria vaccine holds great potential in reducing malaria fatalities in children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMachine learning derived retinal pigment score from ophthalmic imaging shows ethnicity is not biology.
Nat Commun
January 2025
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust & University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK.
Few metrics exist to describe phenotypic diversity within ophthalmic imaging datasets, with researchers often using ethnicity as a surrogate marker for biological variability. We derived a continuous, measured metric, the retinal pigment score (RPS), that quantifies the degree of pigmentation from a colour fundus photograph of the eye. RPS was validated using two large epidemiological studies with demographic and genetic data (UK Biobank and EPIC-Norfolk Study) and reproduced in a Tanzanian, an Australian, and a Chinese dataset.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!