Knowledge of Occupational Hazards and Safety Practices Among Healthcare Professionals in Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Hospital, Accra.

Abstract

Background: Occupational health and safety, morbidity and mortality are important issues. Health care workers are exposed to occupational hazards at their workplaces. Poor knowledge of Occupational Health and safety practices among health care workers may contribute to this situation. This study is aimed at assessing the occupational health, hazards, and safety practices among healthcare staff at Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Hospital, popularly known and called LEKMA Hospital, in the Greater Accra Region. Methods: Cross-Sectional survey design was used. A structured, closed ended questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were entered, cleaned and analyzed using STATA. Descriptive and bivarrate analyses techniques were used to analyze, present the data and determined the level of significance. Results: All doctors, 79 % nurses and 72.4 % of other health workers had adequate /high knowledge about hazard and safety practices. Seventy- four percent (74%) of the health workers had suffered at least one form of occupational injury in the course of the study. Most of the participants comprising doctors (100%), nurses (93.9%) and others (86.2%) used appropriate personal protective equipment and safety practices. Finally, health workers working in the hospital for six years are three times more likely to have high level of knowledge of occupational hazards and safety practices. Conclusion: Health workers have high knowledge of occupational hazards and safety practices at LEKMA Hospital. Nevertheless, there was a high prevalence of occupational injuries among healthcare staff. Further studies should therefore be conducted to determine the reasons why inspite of the high level of knowledge of occupational hazards and safety practices, there was a high prevalence of occupational injuries among the healthcare staff.