Risk factors for occupational exposures of operating room nurses and precautions

OBJECTIVE To investigate the incidence of occupational exposures of the operating room nurses and explore the risk factors so as to provide guidance with respect to take precautions.METHODS According to the occupational exposure registration tables filled out by the operating room medical staff from Jan 2010to Jan 2013,the incidence of occupational exposures and the risk factors were retrospectively analyzed.RESULTS Of totally 45 operating room nurses investigated,the occupational exposure occurred in 24(53.3%),among which the nurses with sharp instrument injuries accounted for 66.67%;the blood borne transitted diseases were involved in all the exposure sources,the hepstitis B accounted for 79.17%.For the main links during which the occupational exposures occured,thre were 7nurses with needle injuries occuring during the surgery suture,4nurses with syringe needles injuries occuring duirng passing the surgical instruments,1with neelde stick injuries and 1with scissor injuries when settling the instruments,and 1with ffotback injuries when the lancet fell down.As for the population with occupational exposure,the nurses with low titles and interns were dominant,accounting for 91.67%.Among the occutaional exposure sites,the hands accounted for 70.83%,followed by the eyes(29.17%).As the occupational exposures occured,6(25.0%)nurses were not wearing gloves,and 17(70.83%)were wearing one-layer gloves;there were 10(41.67%)nurses with the occupational exposures due to the lack of concentration;no person was infected due to the occupational exposure.CONCLUSIONS The incidence of occupational exposure is high in the operating room nurses,standard precautions need to be strengthened,it is necessary to establish a sound occupational safety training system and set up a warning mechanism for prevention of occupational exposure so as to safeguard occupational safety of the operating room nurses.