Yeshitila M, Mengistie B, Demessie A and Godana W
Background: In developing countries including Ethiopia, the risk of having work-related injury is 10 to 20 times higher than that of developed countries. In their everyday clinical practice, nurse students are at a great risk of occupational hazards, especially risk of exposure to blood borne pathogens potentially resulting to infections. High levels of occupational hazards are believed to affect students’ health and academic performance. Objectives: To assess prevalence of needle stick injury and associated factors among nurse and midwife students during their clinical practice. Methods: Cross-sectional study design was employed to assess needle stick injuries among randomly selected 600 nurse and midwife students in December 2013. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Logistic regression with OR and 95% CI were computed. Results: One year self-reported prevalence of one or more needle sticks/sharp injury was 62.8%. The life time risk of needle stick injury was 64.8%. The results of the multivariate analysis indicated that exposure to needle stick/ sharp injury was significantly associated with being male (AOR 1.56, 95% CI1.07-2.275), Urban family Residence (AOR 2, 95% CI 1.18 – 2.422), Learning about infection prevention (AOR 0.44, 95% CI 0.17 – 1.17) and Disassembling used needles before disposal (AOR 1.55, 95% CI 1.09-2.204). Conclusion: The prevalence of needle sticks/sharp injury was very high in the study population. In order to improve the situation, creating awareness about infection prevention before deploying of students to clinical practice is important.