solale ramzani - M.Sc. Student of Occupational Health, Occupational Health Department, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran,
Siavash Etemadinezhad - Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Health, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
Jamshid Yazdani Charati - PhD of Biostatistics, Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

Background and Aim: Despite the development of protective processes and the awareness of nurses working in hospitals to accuracy in the work process and the consequences of needle-stick injuries, workers in these occupations continue to suffer from these kinds of injuries. Up to now, the factors affecting the occurrence of needle-stick injuries in nurses and the frequency of these events in hospitals of capital of Mazandaran province (Sari, Iran) has not been studied. Therefore, this study was designed and implemented.Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of hospital nurses established in capital city of Mazandaran province (Sari, Iran). Data of hospitals features, characteristics of nurses, considered protective variables and the frequency of needle-stick injuries in the last year among total 212 nurses in 4 hospitals in this city were collected. Only 132 of total nurses employed responded to all questionnaire questions. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis, chi-squared test were used to data analyzing with SPSS v.21 software to identify the most factors associated with needle-stick injuries of nurses in the last year.Results: The response rate to the questionnaire was 63.8%, which showed a higher female participation rate than male (60.6% vs 39.4%). Among the studied hospital nurses 51 (38.6%) had experienced needle-stick injuries while working in the hospital in the previous year. There was no significant difference between the incidence rate and the nurses employed in public or private hospitals (P <0/05). Also, there was no significant difference between employment in different parts of the hospital and the rate of injury. However, most of the incidents occurred in ICU and neurology nurses staff. Participation in retraining courses (81.1%) and scientific conferences and seminars (56.1%) were the most common factors in nurses awareness and increased workload, over-hastiness, non-observance of protective measures and visual error when working, were the most common factors affecting injuries (62.7%, 41.2%, 37.3% and 9.8% respectively).Conclusion: Needle-stick is one of the important occupational injuries experienced by nurses in hospitals that associated with characteristics of nurses and hospitals features. Therefore, hospitals can reduce injuries by providing better work environments, continuing education about protection and post-exposure protocols for nursing workers

Needle-stick injuries, Nurses, Hospitals features, Occupational health, Iran