Prevalence and causes of occupational hazards and its relationship with safety climate in nurses of Gorgan educational and therapeutic hospitals

Background and Objective: occupational hazards in nurses are very high, which leads to increased absenteeism from the workplace, more visits to the doctor, reduced service provision, loss of working hours and disability. Improper safety climate can be one of the causes of occupational accidents. This study was conducted to determinate the prevalence, causes of occupational hazards and the existing safety climate in Gorgan educational hospitals from the nurses' point of view. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and was conducted in teaching hospitals of Gorgan city. 267 nurses participated in the study by stratified random sampling. The data were collected using valid and reliable questionnaires on the frequency of occupational hazards, causes of occupational hazards, and safety climate and were analyzed using Spearman, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis correlation coefficient tests. Results: In terms of physical injuries, 94% of nurses had suffered from musculoskeletal disorders. 90.3% expressed that they were threatened and verbally and physically attacked by the patient and his companions. The large amount of nursing work (61%) was the main and most common cause of occupational injuries in the workplace of nurses. The average score of the existing safety climate was 3.10 ± 0.6. Conclusion: A high percentage of nurses reported physical and mental injuries caused by work, and the safety atmosphere among nurses was relatively moderate. To reduce physical injuries, nursing managers must pay attention to injury prevention methods and how to deal with this problem.