Hand Washing: A Proposed Scoring Scale to Grade the Level of Practice of Mothers in the Community

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate blood and bodily fluids exposure through needlestick injuries (NSI) and non-percutaneous incidents among healthcare workers (HCWs). This project utilized a dataset collected from J. W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, between January 1, 2014 and August 15, 2017. Data included de-identified codes of employees, occupations, types of exposure to bloodborne pathogens, routes of exposure, infectious disease exposures, and time incidents. During this time period, 655 incident reports were documented and finalized in regards to blood or body fluid exposure. HCWs had 506 (77.25%) NSIs and 149 (22.74%) non-percutaneous incidents. The majority of the HCWs (331,50.53%) were nurses who were occupationally exposed, with 239 (47.23%) incidents reporting NSIs and 92 (61.74%) incidents reporting non-percutaneous exposures. Chi-square tests were used, and there was a statistically significant association between occupations and exposure incidents (P-value p=<.0001). Occupations and shift time were statistically associated with the routes of exposure (p=<.0001). NSIs had higher incidents than non-percutaneous exposures. Exposure to bloodborne pathogens largely occurred among nurses and physicians. Future research should assess the type and duties of nurses and physicians, as well as examine differences in the characteristics of HCWs regarding of the characteristics of shifts (such as time and length) which lead to NSIs