Minding the Prevention Protocol for Blood-Borne Diseases via EM Residents

BACKGROUND: The emergency department (ED) is one of the high-risk places for blood-borne disease (BBD) transmission. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the rate of adherence to preventive measures (PM) against the blood-borne diseases via emergency medicine (EM) residents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 80 emergency residents of an educational public hospital were observed with regard to abiding by the preventive measures from March to May 2010. RESULTS: Cleaning blood tainted skin before phlebotomy or IV line preparation and hand washing before donning latex gloves achieved the maximum (88/150) and minimum (0/150) scores. The most observed barriers of PM were frequent attendance of patients (85%), work load (80%), and need to work rapidly (68%). CONCLUSIONS: It seems that, the preventive instructions are not optimally respected by ERs possibly due to the crowded wards, high work load and the need to work rapidly.