Risk of Sharps Injuries to Home Care Nurses and Aides: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate all available literature and develop a pooled estimate of the risk of sharps injuries (SI) among home care (HC) nurses and aides. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted and relevant articles were reviewed following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Primary outcome data from studies identified by the systematic review were pooled using a random effects model to calculate a summary measure of SI risk for nurses and for aides. RESULTS: Five articles were included in the final analysis. Nurses had a 5.25% weighted average risk of experiencing at least one SI in the past year while working in HC (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.11% to 7.40%); aides pooled SI risk was 1.74% (95% CI: 0.72% to 2.77%). CONCLUSIONS: Combining findings of all available studies demonstrates that there is a serious risk of SI among both the HC nurses and aides.