Study on primary prevention of blood borne pathogens among nursing staff of teaching hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Introduction Primary prevention is the most important and effective way to prevent blood borne pathogens in the health care workers. This study was carried out to evaluate primary prevention in nursing staff of three teaching hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Sciences. Materials and methods This is a cross-sectional study among nursing staff of three teaching hospitals. Data were collected by a questionnaire with proper reliability and validity. Results Out of the 397 the nursing staff, 86.9% (n=344) were female .Most frequency of full compliance with standard precautions )SPs( were related to wearing gloves before touching mucous membranes or non intact skin of patients (64.8%), wearing gloves before touching with blood and body fluids (59.6%) and putting the used needle and syringe in the safety box (56.4%). More than ninety six percent (96.2%) of the nursing staff had received complete hepatitis B vaccination and 76.8% of the staff with full vaccination had been tested for level of hepatitis B surface antibody. Mean and standard deviation total score of compliance with SPs were 1.95±0.47 (out of 3). Status of compliance with SPs in 51.4% of the staff was unfavorable. Logistic regression analysis showed that exposure to blood and body fluids (OR=2.16, 95%CI: 1.29-3.78) and age group (OR=1.75, 95%CI: 1.12-2.85) were the predictor variables for status of compliance with SPs. Conclusion This study showed that the status compliance with universal precautions is not favorable in the nurses. So, proper managerial and educational intervention should be designed for promoting this condition.