risk factors of needle stick and sharp injuries among health care workers

background and purpose: needle stick injuries (nsis) remains a significant risk of occupational transmission of blood-borne pathogens in health care workers (hcws). this study aimed to determine the “risk factors of needlestick and sharps injuries among healthcare workers in naft hospital, mahshahr”. methods: a descriptive-cross sectional study carried out on 135 hcws in naft hospital in mahshar, in 2011-12. data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire. the first part included questions about demographic characteristics. the second part of the questionnaire consisted of 11 items related to the sharp instrument injuries. after confirming content and face validity, reliability of the questionnaire was determined to be 0.88, using cronbach's alpha test. data analysis, including descriptive and analytical statistics was performed using spss ver. 16. a p≤ 0.05 was considered statistically sig nificant. results: the mean age of the participants was 33.83 +/- 6.22. (24-50) years old and 69.3% were females. the incidence rate of nsi was 64.1%. recapping of needles (25.8%) and iv access (19.7%) were the most common actions resulted to exposure. exposed people believed that the most important reason for nsis was patients unpercaution (38.5%), and crowdedness (33.8%).the most injuries were occurred in the emergency department(21%) and internal ward(16.1%). 80.8% of nurses had been vaccinated against hepatitis b virus. there weren't statistically significant differences in demographic variables with nsis. conclusion: the present study showed a high occurrence of nsi among hcws in this mahshar hospital. training in handling and disposal of sharps, preventing and reporting strategies are needed to increase safety practices for hcws.