Beliefs of head nurses at a university hospital about occupational risks involving biological material / Crenças de enfermeiros com cargo de chefia de um hospital universitário sobre os riscos ocupacionais com material biológico

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

By leading a team and conducting a health service, head nurses assume an important role in the prevention of occupational exposure to potentially contaminated biological material, as they lead professional teams that are the most frequent accident victims in the hospital environment, due to they constant contact with blood and body fluids. This descriptive study was carried out at a large university hospital in the interior of São Paulo and aimed to assess head nurses? knowledge and beliefs about occupational exposure to biological material. Data were collected between May and August 2006 and subject to qualitative analysis, using Bardin?s Content Analysis method (1977), and quantitative analysis through descriptive statistics, based on Rosenstock?s (1974a, b) Health Belief Model (HBM), which allowed us to understand head nurses? knowledge on biological risk and the main conducts towards an accident situation. This evidenced defects in these professionals? training and gaps in their improvement and recycling process. Through the HBM, we identified the barriers head nurses face with a view to nursing workers? adherence to measures aimed at preventing occupational exposure to blood and body fluids. These barriers were related to the institution?s infrastructure, human and material resources. Resistance to the using of individual protection equipment, incorrect discarding of contaminated materials and inadequate number of staff were indicated as the main motives for accident occurrence at the institution. Nurses consider themselves more susceptible to the acquired immunodeficiency virus than to hepatitis C and B virus, and knowledge about body fluid-borne diseases was quite limited, evidencing the need for permanent education, so that these nurses can provide adequate orientations about behaviors and occupational exposure risks involving biological material in their respective work sectors. These professionals believe that the benefits of accident prevention are: prevention of future diseases or disease that can cause severe complications and death risk, although many of them reported that accident prevention is needed to avoid losing work days deriving from leave of absence and, consequently, to avoid a salary reduction. Permanent education as an in-service communication strategy can help programs to prevent occupational accidents with biological material involving the work team. Moreover, head nurses need to preserve an attitude that values the safety climate in the work environment.

ASSUNTO(S)

enfermeiras chefe riscos biológicos supervisory nursing acidentes ocupacionais occupational risks occupational accidents

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