gms | German Medical Science

15. Grazer Konferenz – Qualität der Lehre: Teaching and Learning – Expanding our Resources

28. - 30. April 2011, Wien, Österreich

Causes of needle stick injuries among medical students: Time for practical training?

Poster

  • corresponding author Helmut J.F. Salzer - Medical University of Graz, Section of Infectious Diseases, Division of Pulmonology, Graz, Austria.
  • author Martin Hoenigl - Medical University of Graz, Section of Infectious Diseases, Division of Pulmonology, Graz, Austria.
  • author Thomas Valentin - Medical University of Graz, Section of Infectious Diseases, Division of Pulmonology, Graz, Austria.
  • author Robert Krause - Medical University of Graz, Section of Infectious Diseases, Division of Pulmonology, Graz, Austria.

15. Grazer Konferenz – Qualität der Lehre: Teaching and Learning – expanding our resources. Wien, Österreich, 28.-30.04.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc11grako44

doi: 10.3205/11grako44, urn:nbn:de:0183-11grako447

Published: April 25, 2012

© 2012 Salzer et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Poster

Recent studies showed that the frequency of nonreported needlestick injuries is alarmingly high among medical students and surrounding circumstances are not fully understood.

Causes of needle stick injuries (NSI) among 1200 medical students from Austria, Germany and the UK, as well as tasks performed during injury were obtained via an online questionnaire.

Respondents from Austria and Germany experienced a significantly higher number of needlestick injuries than respondents from the UK. Lack of experience (47%) followed by equipment failure (31%) and lack of skills (28%) were the leading causes of NSI among participating medical students in Austria, while time pressure was the leading cause of injury in the UK (46%) and Germany (32%) followed by lack of experience in both countries. The most frequently reported task performed during NSI was cleaning up in all three countries, followed by suturing and recapping of needle.

Lack of experience was the leading cause of NSI among medical students in Austria. Our data may indicate that introduction of a practical training regarding NSI in medical curricula may be needed.