Research Information System
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING SCIENCES, vol.9, no.1, pp.111-121, 2016 (Scopus)
Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitisis B (HBV), Hepatitisis C (HCV) infections which are infected through blood and body fluids pose great risks for healthcare workers and the exposure frequency to blood and body fluids is especially more common among medical doctors and nurses working in surgical units. Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the universal precautions that surgical nurses are taken for preventing from diseases transmitted by blood and body fluids. Methodology: It was conducted with the participation of 410 surgical nurses working in two big university hospitals. Universal check-list containing 27 universal precautions was used and additional demographic information was collected (n=410). Results: In this study 34.1 % of the participants were aged between 26 and 31 and 73.2 % of them received education about diseases infected through blood and body fluids. It was also found out that 50.2 % of them (n=206) didn’t take enough precautions regarding being protected against diseases and 61.6 % of those who didn’t take precaution didn’t do so because of the lack of equipment. Lastly, the nurses who work in operating room were found to have high scores in implementing universal precautions. Conclusion: Healthcare workers working under risk should be informed about universal precautions in order to protect themselves from the diseases infected through blood and body fluids. Key Words: Universal precautions; diseases infected through blood; surgical nurse