Occupational Hazards and Safety Nursing Guidelines for Pediatric Nurses in the Health Care Setting

Safety in the workplace was the major concern in a variety of occupations and workplace settings. In nursing, the main concern of research was concerned on patient safety; there was limited researches focused on nurses' safety in work setting. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of implementing occupational hazards and safety nursing guidelines for pediatric nurses in the health care setting. A quasi-experimental research design using one group (pre-test & post-test measures) was used. A convenience sample of 173 pediatric nurses affiliated to Mansoura University children's Hospital (MUCH), Mansoura University, Egypt; and accepted to participate in the study was included. The study illustrated that, 77.9% of nurses suffered from fatigue, 69.5% of nurses had back pain. In addition, significant number of nurses are exposed to MRSA infection (61.7%) and 67.4% are exposed to needle stick injury. Before implementing the nursing guidelines, approximately half of nurses had low level knowledge (46.8%) compared to 15% after implementation of nursing guidelines & the difference was statistically significant. The study concluded that, the hazards associated with nursing profession were higher and critical. In addition, there was an improvement of nurse's knowledge and practice about safety with the implementation of educational guidelines. Therefore, the researchers' recommended developing standard of health care safety clarifying the role of health care institution in dealing with and overcoming the occupational hazards in the health care setting in order to improve nurses' safety and commitment to the health care environment. Key words: nurses safety, occupational hazard, nursing guidelines & occupational hazards prevention DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/59-10