Outcomes Of Preventive and Control Measures Against Medical Sharps Injuries Among Healthcare Workers at Sub-County Facilities in Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract

Globally, over two million Healthcare workers suffer needle-stick injuries (NSI) per year leading to Hepatitis B, C and HIV infections. In Kenya 58% of healthcare workers have suffered these injuries. Main objective of this research was to determine the outcomes of control measures against medical sharps and needle-stick injuries amongst Health Care workers (HCW) at Sub-County hospitals in Mombasa County and specifically types of controls measures available, health workers adherence to safety guidelines, knowledge and training on control measures and the prevalence of needle-stick injuries at the sub-county hospitals. A descriptive cross sectional research design was utilized and focused on nurses, Clinical Officers, Lab Technologists, Public health officers, dentists, waste handlers/support staff that were selected via stratified random sampling. Questionnaire, Interviews and a checklist was also used to collect data. The Data analysis was done by use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0. This study found that availability of sharps installed with safety features reduced sharps injuries but were not readily available. The use of sharp disposal containers was one of the most commonly used method of sharps disposal (95.7 %.) and had significant reduction in exposure to sharp injuries. A minority, 39.1% of those with professional training were exposed to sharp injuries. 50% of those without professional training had injuries indicating that training back in college had insignificant importance in preventing sharps injuries [X2 (DF= 2, N= 117) = 0.0545, p= 0.05]. 91.3% of professional trained healthcare workers also exhibited adherence where they were found to use safety boxes as a proper way of disposing used sharps [X2 (DF= 2, N= 117) = 0.045, p= 0.05]. Personal protective equipment such as safety boots had a positive impact in reducing exposure where only 36.8% of those using safety boots were exposed to sharp injuries compared to 54.1% of those without safety boots being exposed to sharp injuries [X2 (DF= 1, N= 117) = 0.02, p= 0.05]. While others such as hand gloves had insignificant importance. In conclusion, despite the availability of engineering control measures the outcome did not positively determine if the control measures available are adequate to prevent needlestick injuries at the Hospitals. The management should therefore ensure sustainable supply and use of new and effective engineering devises, safe disposal of medical sharps, ensure availability of safety guidelines and facilitate regular training, reporting and surveillance of sharps injury cases at the three sub-county health facilities.