Abstract:
Back ground: Sharps injury represents a major occupational hazard in the healthcare
environment with nurses and midwives experiencing a large proportion of the burden. It poses a
significant threat to a well-being of nurses and midwives but targeted interventions are not
employed. Therefore, this study is aimed to assess sharp injuries and associated factors among
nurses and mid wives working at health institutions in Nekemte town, oromia, Ethiopia, 2023.
Method: A facility based cross sectional study was carried out among 354 nurses and midwives
working in Nekemte health facilities. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire
from May-June, 2023. The collected data were checked for completeness, and were entered to
Epidata version 3.1 then exported to Statistical package for social science version 24 for further
analysis. Frequency distribution, percentages and Odds Ratio with 95% level of confidence was
calculated and interpreted accordingly. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors
associated with occupational sharp injury. Variables with �-value less than 0.25 as cutting point
in logistic regression analysis were entered into multivariable binary logistic regression model.
Multivariable binary logistic regression models were fitted to control the possible effect of
confounders. Finally, variables whose p value less than 0.05 (p≤0.05) in multivariable binary
logistic regression was declared as statistically significant.
Result: A total of 354 study participants were included in the final analysis and giving a
response rate of 98.3%. The magnitude of exposure to sharps injury among Nurses and midwives
who are working in Nekemte town during the last 12 months of 2022/2023 was 33.6% at 95% CI.
This study indicated that being male (AOR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.38,3.81), having less work
experience (AOR=2.44, 95% CI: 1.23,4.80), not being vaccinated for HBV (AOR=0.25 95% CI:
0.13,0.51), recapping needle (AOR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.92) and who did not use safety
measures to prevent diseases transmission by sharp injury (AOR=2.51, 95% CI: 1.01, 6.19) had
significant association with the occurrence of sharp injury on nurses and Midwives.
Conclusion and recommendation: This study demonstrated high magnitude of sharps injury
among nurses and midwives of Nekemte town health institutions. The high magnitude of Sharps
injury highlights the need for developing targeted interventions and effective preventive
strategies.
