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Occupational Medicine Advance Access originally published online on August 18, 2009
Occupational Medicine 2009 59(7):509-511; doi:10.1093/occmed/kqp103
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Short Reports

Sharps injuries among medical students

Ourania Varsou1, John S. Lemon2 and Finlay D. Dick1

1 Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
2 Directorate of Information Technology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

Background Medical students may be at risk of sharps injuries for several reasons. These exposures can transmit a range of blood-borne pathogens including hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus.

Aims To evaluate medical students’ knowledge regarding the prevention and management of sharps injuries and their experience of such exposures in the calendar year 2007.

Methods A cross-sectional, web-based, survey of fourth and fifth year medical students enrolled at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. All students were at the mid-point of their year of study. An invitation e-mail and two electronic reminders were sent, on specified days, to the study population. These contained a summary of the study and the link to the anonymous questionnaire.

Results Of the 395 medical students e-mailed, 238 (60%) responded. When compared with fourth year medical students, final year students had higher mean knowledge scores for sharps injury management (P < 0.01). Of total, 18% reported resheathing used needles and 31% reported disposing of sharps for others, indicating poor compliance with standard precautions. In the event of an injury, 29% stated that they would scrub the wound. Only 44% were familiar with policies for reporting exposures. In all, 11% of students had experienced at least one contaminated sharps injury in 2007 and, of those, 40% had reported the most recent incident.

Conclusions Medical students are at risk of sharps injuries and their knowledge regarding the prevention and management of these exposures is limited: training on these issues should be increased.

Keywords      Medical students; needlestick injuries; occupational exposures; sharps injuries

Correspondence to: Ourania Varsou, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Liberty Safe Work Research Centre, Foresterhill Road, Aberdeen AB25 2ZP, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1224 558188; fax: +44 (0)1224 551826; e-mail: o.varsou{at}googlemail.com


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