Exposure to Occupational Health Hazards Among Nursing and Midwifery Students During Clinical Practice

BACKGROUND: Health professionals are challenged with physical, chemical, and psychological hazards. The major areas in which nurses perform hazardous tasks were are injection, cleaning, patient care, bed making, cleaning and dressing of wounds, medication administration, and performing operations. During performing these activities, healthcare providers are exposed to many types of occupational hazards. So, there is a dearth of information on the prevalence of occupational hazards among nursing and midwifery students in this study area. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess exposure to occupational health hazards among nursing and midwifery students during clinical practice at Mekelle University. METHODS: Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from February to June 2017. The study participants were selected nursing and midwifery students of Mekelle University who had ever been attached for clinical practice. A sample of 151 students was recruited by a simple random sampling technique proportionate to their size. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The collected data were coded, entered, and cleaned by SPSS version 22 for analysis. Finally, the result was presented in the form of text, table, and figures. RESULTS: A total of 151 students had participated with a response rate of 100%. The prevalence of psychosocial hazards, mechanical hazards, biological hazards, and physical hazards was 140 (92.7%), 128 (84.8%), 100 (66.2%), and 100 (66.2%), respectively. About 46 (29.8%) had good knowledge, and 57 (37.7%) of them had poor knowledge of the occupational hazard. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: Psychosocial hazard was the most common occupational hazard among nursing and midwifery students. The majority of the students have poor knowledge concerning occupational hazards. To build a skilled nurse and midwife, it is mandatory to train all students before clinical practice about safe work practices and proper use of personal protective equipment.