Effect of Implementing Self-Awareness and Empowerment Development Model in Emergency Nurses on Decreasing the Exposure to Sharp Objects and Patients' Discharge

The risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens is one of the occupational hazards and serious concerns of health care workers. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the self-awareness development and empowerment model in emergency nurses on decreasing exposure to sharp objects and patients’ discharges.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted at Khoy University of Medical Sciences in 2019-2020. According to the census method, all 90 nurses who worked in the emergency ward of Imam Khomeini (42 patients as intervention group) and Qamar-e Banihashem (48 patients as the control group) hospitals participated in the study. The nurses of the intervention group underwent an educational program based on the self-awareness development model and were trained in 5 sessions. The questionnaire on exposure to sharp objects and discharges of patients was completed by nurses in both groups before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS 19 software through non-parametric Chi-square, McNemar and Mann-Whitney, and independent T-tests.

There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups before implementing the model (p=0.647). Exposure history in emergency nurses was 55.6% (n=40). There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups after implementing training programs based on the model steps of nurses' exposure (p=0.024).

Implementation of the self-awareness and empowerment model effectively exposes sharp objects and patients' discharge in nurses working in emergency departments.