Prevalence of Dangerous Health Behaviors in Medical Emergency Wards of Teaching Hospitals in Isfahan, Iran

Background: Nosocomial infections are very important among the health staff. Random and unexpected events such as piercing needle or sharp objects to the hand, spattering blood or body fluids to the eyes or mouth, and contact of the damaged skin with blood or body fluids without any protection put healthcare workers at the risk of such infections. This study aimed to determine relative frequency of risky health behaviors when dealing with medical emergencies among the educational hospitals’ staff.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with non-probable simple sampling on 384 people among three university hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences including health workers, nurses, interns, and residents. Risky behaviors of the study subjects in the emergency unit were documented through direct observation in a questionnaire including name, gender, age, occupation, work experience, and hospital along with nine risky and imprudence actions. The results were analyzed through chi-square method.Finding: Lack of using proper gloves during emergency management observed 65.4%, lack of using a specific container for needle destruction (56.0%), and lack of using mask also observed 94.0%. 67% of the subjects during the emergency management turned back the needle cover to it. Relative frequency of hand contamination with blood, blood infusion, infection of the bed sheets, and unit and also piercing a sharp object to the hands during the emergency management respectively were 22.7, 4.2, 36.2 and 3.4 and 98.7 percent. Wearing gloves among women, younger staff, interns, the group with 1.1 to 5 years of experience, and Al-Zahra Hospital was more (P < 0.05). Needle restore coverage, lack of using a specific container for needle destruction, lack of using mask and piercing a sharp object to the hands were associated with age, occupation and work experience (P < 0.05). Regarding needle restore coverage and lack of using a specific container for needle destruction, increase in age was associated with high risk behavior and high level of education was associated with reducing risk behaviors. Increase in work experience was associated with needle restore coverage and using a specific container for needle destruction in the group with 1.1 to 5 years of experience was more prevalent than others. Piercing a sharp object to the hands was more occurred in younger staff and interns, and it also reduced by increasing the work experience. The younger staff, interns and novice groups were the subjects who used masks when it was required. Hand contamination with blood, blood infusion and not applying the appropriate disinfection method were associated with occupation of the subjects; so that all these high-risk behaviors were more prevalent among the health workers. Relative frequency of infection of the bed sheets and patient’s unit was more among the male staff, older staff and also among the interns and health workers.Conclusion: Relative frequency of health risky behaviors unacceptably was very high due to absence of standard precautions at the time of dealing with the medical emergencies in the educational hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Accessibility of protective facilities and informing programs would more help to follow these precautions.