Assessing Health Threatening Problems among Nursing or Midwifery Students during the Clinical Education Course in Turkey

BACKGROUND: This study determined the occupational exposure and health problems experienced by nursing and midwifery students during their clinical internships. METHODS: The study population consisted of 1719 nursing and midwifery students studying at the health sciences faculties of six Turkish universities in 2016. Data were collected using a questionnaire prepared by researchers, namely Occupational Exposure and Health Problems in Clinical Environment Questionnaire, and the State-Trait Anxiety Scale. The data were analyzed using Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis variance analysis, and Spearman correlation analysis. Significance was accepted in a 95% confidence interval and a level of P<0.05. RESULTS: The students had a mean age of 20.86 yr (1.72), and 48.6% had midwifery and 51.4% had nursing major. More than 17.8% of the students were experienced occupational exposure during their clinical internships. Total score for students was 2.15 ±0.71. The scores of the students examined for exposure to hazards and verbal violence was 2.13 ± 1.17, for needle stick injury it was 2.10 ± 1.13. In addition, when the scores of the students’ health problems were examined, insomnia 3.57 ± 1.22, low back pain 2.84 ± 1.29, shoulder or arm pain 2.68 ± 1.29 were determined statistically. There was a positive significant relationship between the mean clinical occupational hazardous exposure and health problems and state-trait anxiety scores (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Approximately one-fifth of the students were exposed to occupational hazardous at the hospital while they were on their clinical internship programs. Students rarely experience occupational exposure, but often suffer from insomnia, sometimes musculoskeletal pains (back, shoulder arm, neck), rarely have skin problems.