Biosecurity preacautions adopted by professionals working in audiology

PURPOSE:

to know the practices of biosecurity practices adopted by Speech Therapists working in Audiology and relate these practices with continuing education and professionals' time of graduation.

METHODS:

70 speech therapists working in Audiology in the cities of Belo Horizonte and Contagem participated in this study. It was administered a questionnaire on Biosafety in Audiology, based on Regulatory Norm 32, comprising 27 closed questions, covering aspects of hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, organization and cleanliness of working items and the environment.

RESULTS:

most of the speech therapists interviewed reported adopting the following biosafety precautions: hand hygiene before attendance (71%), use of lab coats with long sleeves (74%) and buttoned (91%), hair tied (79%), cleaned and cut nails (91%), separation and disinfection of used items (83%), organization of the environment (97%). However, only 40% of them reported washing their hands between patients' appointments and 9% reported to wear gloves when carrying out meatoscopy. It was observed that the allocation of items for disinfection is a routine practice for most professionals with expertise (p <0.05). Professionals with longer time of graduation adhered better to the hand hygiene practice.

CONCLUSION:

washing hands before the attendance, dressing properly, allocating the items intended for disinfection and organizing the workplace are biosecurity practices adopted by most of speech therapists. Some factors such as time of graduation and continuous education positively influence the adoption of correct precautions on Biosafety.

Audiology; Exposure to Biological Agents; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Education, Continuing; Occupational Health