Abstract
Abstract:
Background: Occupational hazards are defined as unfavorable workplace activities that have the potential to injure or sicken the healthcare personnel.2 In low- and middle-income countries, a significant percentage of healthcare professionals are subjected to biological, psychological, ergonomic, and chemical hazards.3
Objectives: To determine the prevalence of various types of biological, ergonomic and psychological workplace hazards faced by medical and paramedical staff of a tertiary care hospital of Lahore.
Methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted at a tertiary care hospital of Lahore, involved 90 healthcare workers including doctors, nurses and lab technicians. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Chi square tests and Fisher-Freeman Halton Exact tests were applied to analyze the associations between healthcare profession type and exposure to various hazards.
Results: This study reveals that out of the 90 healthcare professionals, 71.1% of the respondents were exposed to blood-borne pathogens, and needle-stick injuries were highly prevalent (72.2%). Moreover, 81.1% of the respondents had experienced Work-related musculoskeletal disorders WRMSDs, with low back pain being the most prevalent (63.3%). Psychological hazards were also very common as 86.7% of the respondents reported that they often felt stressed at work, particularly due to high workload and long working hours.
Conclusion: To mitigate the various workplace hazards, this study recommends prioritizing occupational health and safety of healthcare workers within hospital settings by implementing policies for providing sufficient PPE, making ergonomic adjustments and recruiting more staff in hospitals to reduce workload on healthcare workers HCWs.
Keywords | Biological Hazards, Ergonomic Hazards, Psychological Hazards, Medical and Paramedical staff, Tertiary care hospital.