Prevalence and barriers of reporting needle-stick injures amongst government pharmacists working in Perak, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION: Needle-stick injuries (NSIs) are common amongst healthcare workers including pharmacists. Studies have reported a range of 0-5.65 per 1,000 pharmacists handling vaccinations that suffered at least one incident of NSI. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of NSI and the barriers encountered in reporting it amongst government pharmacists working in Perak.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted amongst all government pharmacists in Perak. We excluded those who did not consent or were unreachable electronically. The researchers provided an online link that was forwarded to all heads of departments in Perak via social media. The respondents answered their demographic details, questions assessing their knowledge of NSI transmissible diseases, needle-stick handling practices, detail experiences of them suffering an NSI (all self-developed questionnaires), and their barriers in reporting an NSI (validated questionnaire). All responses were auto-tabulated in an excel sheet. A sample size of 516 pharmacists was needed for this study. A respondent was deemed to have inadequate knowledge when they answered any question wrongly about NSI knowledge-related questions and inappropriate practice in needle handling when respondents answered any questions wrongly for questions assessing practices.

RESULTS: A total of 524 pharmacists participated. The overall prevalence of NSI was 23.1% (n=121), of which, those with contaminated NSI were 10.3% (n=54, 95%CI: 7.9-13.30). Twothirds of the participants (66.6%) had inadequate knowledge and nearly all of them were unable to describe the appropriate needle-handling practices (94.7%). Amongst the reported barriers were "not knowing whose duty it was to report an NSI" (45.5%) and "busy schedules" (44.7%).

CONCLUSION: One in every five pharmacists in the state of Perak had a history of NSI, and 1 in every 10 had sustained a contaminated NSI. The barriers to reporting a NSI were mainly due to uncertainty about whose responsibility to report the incident and being too busy to report it.