Personal protective equipment as an element of prophylaxis in occupational exposure to the biological material of nurses.

Introduction.

The scope of duties in the process of providing health care by nurses is usually associated with direct exposure to blood or other potentially infectious biological material. The most effective way to prevent occupational exposure is primary prophylaxis. On the side employers are organizational and technical actions, at the side of the employee are the constant education and following rules and regulations regarding use of the personal protective equipment.

Aim of the study.

The purpose of the study is to recognize the situation regarding the accuracy of equipment of nurses workplaces with personal protective equipment and it’s use during performing professional procedures related to exposure to potentially infectious material.

Material and methods.

For the realization the established aim of study an epidemiological cross-sectional study was conducted with the self-administrated questionnaire. A declared knowledge and an awareness of nurses were assessed in the examined scope, as well as the availability and the correctness of adopting recommended means and techniques.

Results.

2,462 nurses were examined, majority of them were women (97.9%). Nearly half of respondents were nurses with the higher level of education, while 1,050 (43%) of employees declared the bachelor’s degree. Typically, subjects were employed under permanent contract (78.2%), at least half worked in the surgical wards (51.5%). The determined majority of persons subjected to the questionnaire survey is working in gloves (99,35%) and protective aprons (82,74%), while only 2/3 of respondents (66,54%) working in protective masks.

Conclusions.

Preliminary results confirmed that workstations were equipped with the necessary personal protective equipment and usually medical staff use them in a proper manner.