Use of protective hand shielding by veterinary workers during small animal radiography

Federal government guidelines recommend wearing hand shielding that provides full protection for the entire hand during manual restraint of animals for radiography. The primary objective of this cross-sectional survey of 143 Saskatchewan veterinary workers was to describe behaviors of workers who do not follow guidelines for effective hand shielding, and to examine the factors associated with these behaviors. An electronic invitation to complete an online questionnaire was sent to 1261 members of the provincial veterinary medical and veterinary technologist associations. More than half of the workers reported that their hand protection was visible on a radiograph at least once a month, and 1/5 reported visible unshielded body parts at least once a month. More than 1/3 of workers never used shielding that fully enclosed their hands. Use of fully enclosing gloves or mittens was more likely for workers in academic workplaces (P < 0.001).