A study of needle-stick injuries among house officers in a major hospital

House officers (HO) undergoing housemanship in the departments of Surgery, Medicine and Orthopaedics in a major hospital were studied with regard to the incidence and causes of needle-stick injuries via a self-administered recall questionnaire. A response rate of 79% (44 out of 56 HOs) was obtained, of which 35 HOs had completed 2 months of housemanship and 9 had completed 8 months. A total of 171 needle-stick injuries (1.2 per HO-month) were reported with 6 HOs never sustaining an injury. The more experienced HOs had less injuries than the less experienced HOs with an incidence rate of 4.65 (95% confidence interval of 4.08-8.87). Resheathing was the commonest reported cause of injury (45% of 113 described cases). Forty-three HOs (90%) reported that they frequently resheathed used needles before disposal. Most HOs (61%) felt that they were at nil to moderate risk of contracting an infectious disease from a needle-stick injury. A system of reporting and policies on management of infected personnel may be needed to monitor this health hazard.