Awareness and Attitude towards Management of Needle Prick Injuries among Medical Doctors in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Background: Needle Prick injury is a common occupational hazard to medical doctors, associated with transmission of blood borne infections like Human immunodeficiency virus, Hepatitis B/C and others. This research work is on the awareness and attitude towards the management of needle prick injuries among medical doctors in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Methods: Six research questions and six null hypotheses were formulated to achieve the essence of the study. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was adopted with a sample size of 324, using a purposive cluster sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire that was validated by three Public Health lecturers at the Imo State University, Owerri was used to obtain the data. Data were collected, collated and analysed using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 21.0.

Results: The study revealed a 100% (high) level of awareness and positive attitude towards management of needle prick injuries among the study population. It also revealed that gender and age in practice has no influence or effect on the level of awareness and attitude of medical doctors in in the study area towards the management of needle prick injuries.

Conclusion: The participants have high level of awareness and positive attitude towards the management of needle prick injury, with age in practice and gender having no influence on their level of awareness and attitude towards management of needle prick injuries. Adherence to Universal precautionary measures, continuous re-training of healthcare workers on infectious disease control, proper management of needle prick injuries and safe work place practice remains the means of preventing infectious diseases in hospitals and the health sector at large.