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Occupational risks and adherence to standard precautions in intensive care nursing work: workers’ perceptions

Abstract

Introduction:

working at intensive care units leads to great exposure to occupational hazards.

Objectives:

to know how intensive care nursing workers perceive occupational hazards and Standard Precautions (SP), as well as to describe factors that may interfere with the adherence to the recommended SP.

Method:

qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory study conducted between July and September 2015 involving twelve nursing workers from two intensive care units. Semi-structured interviews and thematic content analysis were used.

Results:

the most perceived hazards were psychological or emotional, chemical, biological, and ergonomic. Regarding SP, workers indicated that there was partial adherence, mainly when it concerned the use of PPE. We identified the availability of protective materials and the awareness as factors favoring the adhesion to SP. As unfavorable factors, feeling of self-assurance, work organization and structure of units, number of employees, workload, haste, unforeseen circumstances, and prolonged time for diagnosing patients with infectious diseases.

Conclusion:

despite the personal issues involved in the perception of occupational hazards and in deciding whether or not using SP, the authors understand that it is possible to enhance the factors favoring adherence.

Keywords:
occupational health; occupational risks; occupational exposure; intensive care units; nursing

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