Occupational accidents and knowledge about universal precautions in Costa Rican university interns
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51481/amc.v47i2.184Keywords:
accidentes ocupacionales, VIH, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, precauciones universales, trabajadores de la saludAbstract
Background and aim:medical students are vulnerableto occupational accidents with needles and other cuttingdevices, because of their inexperience and lack of trainingdespite their desire to do a lot. There is no information inour country regarding the frequency of such accidents inmedical interns. The aim of the present study was to studythe frequency and type of occupational accidents sufferedby medical interns and their knowledge about the universalprecautions.
Methods:cross sectional study. Of all the medicalinterns working in the central part of the country duringOctober 2001 and January 2002 a randomized sample of201 was selected (power 95%, error 5%). To this popula-tion as guided survey was applied. The survey consisted in20 structured questions, most closed and three opened,enquiring about number of occupational accidents, types,what was done at the moment, and knowledge of the univer-sal precautions.
Results: Of all the participants 90% had been workingat lease 3 months as medical interns (last year of the med-ical career). Over half had done both a 3 months medicalrotation and a 3 months surgical rotation. The sampleincluded students from the 5 Universities with the career ofmedicine. Only 37% of the interns surveyed had receivedanti-HBV vaccination. Sixty four percent of them admittedthey had suffered at least one occupational accident withpatient's blood; 20% of these admitted had sufferedbetween 3 and 4 accidents. Of the interns that admitted hadsuffered occupational accidents with needles, 78% did noth-ing after the accident, most of them because they didn'tknow what should be done. Of the total sample, 93% of theinterns knew little or nothing about the universal precau-tions; only 6% could mention three correct measures for universal precaution.
Conclusion:a very high proportion of medical internsin Costa Rica suffers risky occupational accidents early intheir medical practice. Most of these young doctors do noth-ing to prevent themselves from occupational transmitteddiseases, mainly due to lack of knowledge. Their knowl-edge regarding universal precautions is very poor.
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