Prevalence survey of bloodborne occupational exposures among healthcare workers in a three-A eye, ear, nose and throat hospital of Shanghai

OBJECTIVE To investigate the current status of bloodborne occupational exposures among healthcare workers in a three-A specialized hospital of Shanghai so as to provide bases for formulating prevention measures for occupational exposures.

METHODS A questionnaires titled 'Survey of bloodborne occupational exposures among healthcare workers' were clinically distributed to Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University through 'Wenjuanxing platform' from Feb. 2024 to Apr. 2024. The content of the questionnaire included four parts: the baseline data questionnaire, incidence of occupational exposures, awareness of knowledge about occupational exposures, and preventive behaviors regarding occupational exposures.

RESULTS A total of 995 valid questionnaires were collected in the survey, the result of the survey showed that the incidence of bloodborne occupational exposures was 10.65%. The clinicians and doctors engaging in advanced studies were at high risk of the occupational exposures especially when they were busy with work. The result of the survey indicated that the rate of missing report was 71.33%, the implementation rate of monitoring was only 48.11% after the exposures, of which the major causes included the health care workers′ insufficient attention to the exposure events, flaws in prevention and control of occupational exposures and some personnels′poor awareness of reporting process and requirements for monitoring. Although the awareness rate of emergency processing exceeded 90%, the awareness rate of the knowledge about prophylactic use of antibiotics and prevention of needlestick injuries, and the preparations before diagnosis and treatment, standardized operations and use of protective articles still needed to be improved.

CONCLUSIONS The survey reveals that the health care workers pay less attention to the risk of infections, and the prevention of occupational exposure needs to be improved. It is of great importance to raise the awareness of prevention and enhance the systematic training for occupational exposure.