Needle stick injuries, culture of silence: A Systematic Review

Needle stick is the most dangerous occupational injury that threats health care worker especially nurses. The aim of this study was to determine needle stick injuries, risk factors, reporting status and vaccination in previous studies. In this systematic review, all Persian and English full text papers published (since January 2000-2014) related to needle stick in nurses and health care workers were considered. These studies were obtained from SID, Magiran, Nindex and IranMedex, Science Direct, CINAHL, Proquset Nursing, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar by using these terms: nurse, needle stick, sharp injury, percutaneous injury، exposure and occupational injury. Finally, 72 papers were included in this study. From 72 articles reviewed, 46 papers were published in international journals (63. 8%) and 26 in domestic journals (36. 2%). In 25 articles (34. 7% of articles) needle was the most common cause of injury. Most injuries were reported in hands. Injury reporting status was the most important finding that was referred in 31 articles (43% of articles). 34 articles (47. 2% of articles) were referred to vaccination coverage in population under study. Although needle stick injuries in nurses and other health-care providers are common; most of them are reluctant to injuries report and vaccination. The combination of two factors: the under-reporting and incomplete vaccination will lead to aggravation of injuries. Therefore, it is recommended to prevent needle stick, which will be considered as safety to the environment, completion to the vaccination coverage and establishment of reporting system.