Awareness of Occupational Health Hazards among Staff Nurses

This descriptive survey was carried out to investigate the level of awareness about occupational health hazards among nurses at tertiary care hospital karad. The study population consisted of nurses, The simple random sampling technique was employed in Selecting 105 respondents. A validated structured questionnaire with reliability was used to collect information. Data collected were analyzed using the SPSS package. The results revealed that 19.0 % of the respondents were males, 81.0 % were females of which 56.2 %were single, 42.9 % were married and 1 %were widow. Among the respondents 79 % were between 20-30 years of age, 6.7 % between 31-40 years and 9.5 % between 41-50 years while the remaining 4.8 % were aged 51 years and above.69.5 % respondents had 0-3 years working experience, 7.6 % respondents had 3-5 years, 4.8 % respondents had 5-10 years while 18.1 % respondents spend 10years and above in the nursing profession. The results showed that in biological hazards the majority samples 83.8 % strongly agreed that nurses should be fully immunized against hepatitis B, which indicates that they are aware about immunization and 22.9 % samples disagree that is they are unaware about dermatitis because of using latex gloves. In non-biological hazards the majority of samples that is 67.6 % strongly agreed that nurses have stress due to lack of rest which indicates that they are aware about the stress due to lack of rest and 31.4 % of samples disagree that they were unaware about personal monitoring bandages and pocket dosimeters. Conclusion- Staff nurses continue to face several hazards in their work places. The factors associated with experiencing hazards include not using all necessary protective equipments, working over time, experiencing work related pressures and working in multiple facilities. Interventions should be instituted to mitigate the hazards. Occupational health hazards, many of which are avoidable and preventable while others are inevitable, being parts of the everyday duties. This study showed that there was high degree of awareness regarding occupational health hazards among the staff nurses at tertiary care hospital