Chiropractic students' views on needle stick injuries and protocols at a South African university.

IF 1.2 Q4 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES

Health SA Gesondheid Pub Date : 2025-04-30 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.4102/hsag.v30i0.2868

Fatima Ismail, Connor Mcleod

{"title":"Chiropractic students' views on needle stick injuries and protocols at a South African university.","authors":"Fatima Ismail, Connor Mcleod","doi":"10.4102/hsag.v30i0.2868","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Needle stick injuries (NSIs) pose serious occupational risks for health professionals and students, with psychological and physical consequences. Despite increased awareness, NSIs persist. Research focussing on chiropractic students' perspectives on NSIs and related protocols is limited, in South Africa and internationally.Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of chiropractic students towards NSIs and related protocols.Setting: This study was undertaken at the Chiropractic Department, University of Johannesburg.Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative study involving an adapted anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to undergraduate Bachelor of Health Sciences and postgraduate Master of Health Sciences (BHSc and MHSc) chiropractic students. Data were analysed using frequencies, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations to identify relationships in the data.Results: The respondents (n = 107; 42% response rate) had a mean age of 22.83 years and were mostly females (76.6%), which showed high NSI knowledge (88.58%; s.d. = 9.455); however, postgraduates scored higher overall (p < 0.001). While both groups were well informed about risks and protocols, undergraduates emphasised the need for Hepatitis B vaccination (p = 0.021) and reporting of unused sterile needle injuries (p = 0.010), further highlighting variances between the cohorts.Conclusion: Chiropractic students exhibited good NSI knowledge, postgraduates more so, but attitudes and reporting behaviours' varied. Enhanced, standardised education on the urgency of reporting NSIs is recommended to improve protocol and safety practices. Future research should explore long-term NSI protocol adherence.Contribution: This study provides important baseline South African data on perspectives of NSI in a chiropractic student cohort.","PeriodicalId":45721,"journal":{"name":"Health SA Gesondheid","volume":"30 ","pages":"2868"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12067602/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health SA Gesondheid","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v30i0.2868","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Needle stick injuries (NSIs) pose serious occupational risks for health professionals and students, with psychological and physical consequences. Despite increased awareness, NSIs persist. Research focussing on chiropractic students' perspectives on NSIs and related protocols is limited, in South Africa and internationally.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of chiropractic students towards NSIs and related protocols.

Setting: This study was undertaken at the Chiropractic Department, University of Johannesburg.

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative study involving an adapted anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to undergraduate Bachelor of Health Sciences and postgraduate Master of Health Sciences (BHSc and MHSc) chiropractic students. Data were analysed using frequencies, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations to identify relationships in the data.

Results: The respondents (n = 107; 42% response rate) had a mean age of 22.83 years and were mostly females (76.6%), which showed high NSI knowledge (88.58%; s.d. = 9.455); however, postgraduates scored higher overall (p < 0.001). While both groups were well informed about risks and protocols, undergraduates emphasised the need for Hepatitis B vaccination (p = 0.021) and reporting of unused sterile needle injuries (p = 0.010), further highlighting variances between the cohorts.

Conclusion: Chiropractic students exhibited good NSI knowledge, postgraduates more so, but attitudes and reporting behaviours' varied. Enhanced, standardised education on the urgency of reporting NSIs is recommended to improve protocol and safety practices. Future research should explore long-term NSI protocol adherence.

Contribution: This study provides important baseline South African data on perspectives of NSI in a chiropractic student cohort.

查看原文本刊更多论文

南非一所大学脊椎按摩专业学生对针扎伤的看法和治疗方案。

背景：针刺伤（nsi）对卫生专业人员和学生构成严重的职业风险，具有心理和身体后果。尽管意识提高了，nsi仍然存在。在南非和国际上，针对脊医学生对nsi和相关协议的看法的研究是有限的。目的：本研究旨在评估捏脊学生对nsi及相关协议的认知、态度和认知。背景：本研究在约翰内斯堡大学捏脊系进行。方法：对健康科学学士和健康科学硕士（BHSc和MHSc）本科生进行描述性、横断面、定量研究，采用一份经过修改的匿名在线问卷进行调查。使用频率、描述性统计和交叉表来分析数据，以确定数据中的关系。结果：调查对象(n = 107；应答率为42%)，平均年龄22.83岁，以女性居多（76.6%），自伤知识较高(88.58%；S.d = 9.455)；然而，研究生总体得分更高（p < 0.001）。虽然两组都充分了解风险和方案，但本科生强调需要接种乙肝疫苗（p = 0.021），并报告未使用的无菌针头损伤（p = 0.010），进一步突出了队列之间的差异。结论：捏脊医学生具有良好的自伤知识，研究生更甚，但态度和报告行为各不相同。建议加强关于报告nsi紧迫性的标准化教育，以改进协议和安全实践。未来的研究应该探索长期的自伤协议依从性。贡献：本研究提供了重要的南非基线数据，关于捏脊学生群体的NSI观点。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊