Developing Proactive Protocol for Blood-borne and Body Fluids Infections Prevention among Students of Health Professional Colleges in King Khalid University

Abstract

Background: Exposure to blood and body fluids is an important hazard for health professional students, which places them at a high risk for blood-borne infections. They are exposed to blood-borne diseases most commonly through accidental needle sticks and sharp injuries. Blood-borne infections are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The introduction of safety measures guide to prevent accidental blood-borne infections in health professional college curricula are essential. Hence, the present study aims develop proactive protocol for prevention of blood borne and body fluids infections among nursing, medical, and dental students in King Khalid University. Setting; the study was conducted at Faculty of Medicine, Dental, and Nursing in University Center for the Study of Female Students at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. Subjects; a purposive sample of 300 female students, 130 from nursing, 126 from medical, and 44 from dental program were included in the present study. Tool; a questionnaire sheet developed by researchers based on reviewing related literature and consists of five parts was used for data collection. Results and Conclusion; the majority of studied participants reported the needle-stick injuries occur when drawing intravenous blood and giving patient intravenous injection, the primary factor lead to sharp injures is broken some ampoule and using sharp instruments, they need to know preventive and precautions to prevent blood-born infection and equipment uses to avoid it. Also it was found no significant difference between participant students regarding their attitude toward standard percussion and preventive measures for blood borne infection. Recommendations; Findings of the present study have important implication for developing a Proactive Protocol of Blood-borne and Body Fluids Infections prevention among students of nursing, medical, dental colleges. This focused on proactive and controlling blood-borne infection diseases, needle-stick, and sharp injuries and lead to a healthy life of students.

Key words: proactive protocol, blood-borne infection, Needle stick injuries, Sharps injuries, health professional collages

Abbreviations: HCWs healthcare workers, HIV immunodeficiency virus, HBV hepatitis B virus, HCV hepatitis C virus, NSISIs needle stick & sharp injuries, OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration, PEP post-exposure prophylaxis, CDC Disease Control and Prevention, SPs standard precautions, UP universal precautions, BBFEs blood and body fluid exposures, PPE personnel protective equipment.