Background: Needle stick injuries constitute the greatest threat to nursing students during clinical practice because of accidental exposure to body fluids and infected blood. The purpose of this study was to (1) determine the prevalence of needle stick injuries and (2) measure the level of knowledge, attitude and practice among nursing students about needle stick injuries.
Methods: Three hundred participants undergraduate nursing students at a private college in Saudi Arabia were included, of whom 281 participated, for an effective response rate of 82%.
Results: The participants showed good knowledge scores with a mean score of 6.4 (SD = 1.4), and results showed that students had positive attitudes (Mean = 27.1, SD = 4.12). Students reported a low level of needle stick practice (Mean = 14.1, SD = 2.0). The total prevalence of needle stick injuries in the sample was 14.1%. The majority, 65.1%, reported one incidence in the last year, while (24.4%) 15 students reported two incident of needle stick injuries. Recapping was the most prevalent (74.1%), followed by during injection (22.3%). Most students did not write a report (77.4%), and being worried and afraid were the main reasons for non-reports (91.2%). The results showed that female students and seniors scored higher level in all needle stick injuries domains (knowledge, attitude and practice) than male students and juniors. Students who had needle stick injuries more than three times last year reported a lower level of all needle stick injury domains than other groups (Mean = 1.5, SD =1.1; Mean = 19.5, SD =1.1; Mean = 9.5, SD =1.1, respectively).
Conclusion: Although the student’s showed good knowledge and positive attitudes in NSI, the students reported a low level of needle stick practice. Raising awareness among nursing students and conducting continuing education related to sharp devices and safety and how to write an incident reporting is highly recommended.
Background: Hospital organizational change can be a challenging time, especially when staff do not feel informed and ready for the change to come. A supportive workplace culture can mitigate the negative effects allowing for a smooth transition during hospital organizational change. In this paper, we test an exploratory path model by which teamwork culture influences staff attitudes in feeling informed and ready for change, and which are ultimately related to reduced staff burnout. We also examined different types of change communication, identifying the channels that were perceived as most useful for communicating organizational change.
Methods: In 2019, a cross-sectional online and paper-based survey of all staff (clinical and non-clinical) was conducted at a hospital undergoing major organizational change in Sydney, Australia. The survey included items regarding teamwork culture, communication (feeling informed, communication channels), change readiness (appropriateness, change efficacy), and burnout. With a sample size of 153 (62% clinical staff), regression and path analyses were used to examine relationships between variables.
Results: The total effects between teamwork culture and burnout was significant [β (Total) = −0.37, p < 0.001) and explained through a serial mediation. This relationship was found to be mediated by three factors (feeling informed, appropriateness of change and change efficacy) in a full mediation. Further, change readiness (appropriateness of change and change efficacy) mediated the relationship between feeling informed and burnout. The most useful channels of change communication included face-to-face informal communication, emails, and a newsletter specifically about the change.
Conclusion: Overall, the results supported the predicted hypotheses and were consistent with past research. In the context of large hospital change, staff with a positive teamwork culture who feel informed are more likely to feel change-ready, heightening the chances of successful organizational change and potentially reducing staff burnout. Understanding the pathways on how culture and communication related to burnout during organizational change provides an explanatory pathway that can be used to heighten the chances of a smooth change transition with minimal disruption to staff and patient care.