Occupational exposures of healthcare workers tend to occur because of
inconsistent compliance with standard precautions. Also, incidence of occupational
exposure is underreported among operating room personnel. The purpose of this
project was to develop national estimates for compliance with standard precautions
and occupational exposure reporting practices among operating room nurses in
Australia. Data was obtained utilizing a 96-item self-report survey. The Standard
Precautions and Occupational Exposure Reporting survey was distributed
anonymously to 500 members of the Australian College of Operating Room Nurses.
The Health Belief Model was the theoretical framework used to guide the analysis of
data. Data was analysed to examine relationships between specific constructs of the
Health Belief Model to identify factors that might influence the operating room nurse
to undertake particular health behaviours to comply with standard precautions and
occupational exposure reporting. Results of the study revealed compliance rates of
55.6% with double gloving, 59.1% with announcing sharps transfers, 71.9% with
using a hands-free sharps pass technique, 81.9% with no needle recapping and 92.0%
with adequate eye protection. Although 31.6% of respondents indicated receiving an
occupational exposure in the past 12 months, only 82.6% of them reported their
exposures. The results of this study provide national estimates of compliance with
standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting among operating room
nurses in Australia. These estimates can now be used as support for the development
and implementation of measures to improve practices in order to reduce occupational
exposures and, ultimately, disease transmission rates among this high-risk group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219151 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Osborne, Sonya Ranee, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Nursing |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Sonya Ranee Osborne |
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