Assessment of the Knowledge of Occupational Hazards and Control Measures among Healthcare Workers of the General Hospital, Minna
Agbana Busayo Emmanuel *
Department of Community Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria
Idris M. Sheshi
Department of Public Health, Niger State Ministry of Health, Minna, Nigeria
Juwon Johnson Orugun
Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This study focused on the assessment of knowledge of occupational hazards and its control measures among healthcare workers of the General Hospital, Minna. The study was Cross-Sectional Descriptive. The population of the study included all permanent staffs working for at least 6 months. In this study, 300 sample size was used. Stratified Sampling Technique was adopted for allocating questionnaires. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS. The finding indicates that Healthcare workers of the General Hospital have a low level of knowledge on occupational hazards and its control due to non-exposure to training on occupational hazards, and this may constitute a danger to their health. The study concludes that less than 1/10th of the respondents were exposed to fluid from HIV/AIDS patients and that high number received Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP). This study, therefore, recommends that Health Education should be strengthened to enhance knowledge of health workers on the use of PPE and that Health workers should attend training on occupational hazards and control measures at the hospital.
Keywords: Occupational hazard, control measures, occupational illness, needle stick injuries, post exposure prophylaxis, hepatitis B vaccine