Nurses: Work pressure hurts safety climate
ANA survey reveals concerns about safety
Increasing workloads and pressure and an emphasis on productivity is negatively affecting the safety climate at hospitals, nurses reported in a 2008 online survey of nurses by the Silver Spring, MD-based American Nurses Association (ANA).
"You may feel you have a safety culture, but the climate is [reflected] in what the worker feels," says Nancy Hughes, MS, RN, director of the ANA's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.
Based on a survey of about 700 nurses, they're concerned about their safety. Some 55% of the nurses said the safety climate of their workplace negatively affects their personal safety. Three-quarters (74%) said they would not consider working for an employer who does not provide safety syringes.
Most of them (64%) have had a needlestick at some point in their careers, according to the survey, which was sponsored by Inviro Medical Devices in Atlanta.
The survey also found that:
- 87% of nurses say concerns about safety influence their decisions about their nursing career, including whether they stay in the field.
- 82% of nurses have put patient safety above their own safety.
- 35% of nurses who have been stuck by a contaminated needle have had two or more needlesticks in their careers.
- Needlesticks are most likely to occur while giving an injection, before activating a safety device, or during disposal of a nonsafety device.
- Nurses feel the most common reasons for underreporting are a nurse's belief that she is not at risk of infection, concern that reporting takes too much time, and fear of discipline from the incident.
- 39% of nurses said they were not treated or evaluated after a needlestick.
"We need to take the barriers down and make sure that people get evaluated and tested," says Hughes.
More information on the report, 2008 Study of Nurses' Views on Workplace Safety and Needlestick Injuries, is available at http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/OccupationalandEnvironmental/occupationalhealth/OccupationalResources/2008SafetyandNeedlestickStudy.aspx.
Increasing workloads and pressure and an emphasis on productivity is negatively affecting the safety climate at hospitals, nurses reported in a 2008 online survey of nurses by the Silver Spring, MD-based American Nurses Association (ANA).You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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