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Background: Sharp injuries are common reasons for the transmission of blood-borne diseases in acute care settings. Fear of sharp injuries and their consequences can expose nurses to high levels of stress (sharp injuries stress)., Aim: To examine the occurrence of sharp injuries and to assess their relationship with stress among nurses working in acute care settings., Design: This was a cross-sectional study., Methods: A total of 150 nurses working in 10 acute care settings in two selected hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt, were selected as the population of this study. Data on the occurrence of sharp injuries were collected using a sharp injuries circumstances questionnaire (including questions regarding number, instrument and reasons/procedures that caused sharp injuries, etc.), and two scales were used to measure sharp injuries stress (the Impact of Event Scale-Revised and the Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome Questions Inventory)., Results: More than 13% of nurses experienced sharp injuries, and 25% of injuries were caused by contaminated instruments. Sharp injuries stress scores were high in nurses, with 65% of nurses experiencing sharp injuries and 30.8% of nurses who did not experience sharp injuries having high Impact of Event Scale-Revised scores. In addition, 45% of nurses who experienced sharp injuries and 15.39% of nurses who did not experience sharp injuries had high Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome Questions Inventory (PTSSQI) scores. There was a significant relationship between the occurrence of sharp injuries and stress scales at P < .05., Conclusions: Nurses are exposed to sharp injuries, leading to sharp injury stress pre- and post-occurrence of injuries. Sharp injuries stress can make nurses prone to Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS)., Relevance to Clinical Practice: Factors that lead to the occurrence of sharp injuries and sharp injuries stress should be investigated, and a psychological rehabilitation unit should be instituted to help nurses working in acute care settings deal with the sharp injuries-related stressors they are facing., (© 2021 British Association of Critical Care Nurses.)

Background: The Nursing profession is struggling to return to basic nursing care to maintain patients' safety. "Interventional patient hygiene" (IPH) is a measurement model for reducing the bioburden of both the patient and health care worker, and its components are hand hygiene, oral care, skin care/antisepsis, and catheter site care., Objectives: To identify the level of nurses' practice and knowledge about interventional patient hygiene and identify barriers for implementing interventional patient hygiene in critical care units., Methodology: A descriptive research design was used and three tools were applied in this study: "The Interventional Patient Hygiene Observational Checklist", "The Interventional Patient Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire" and "The Barriers for Implementing Interventional Patient Hygiene in Critical Care Units"., Results: The mean percentage nurses' knowledge score is higher than the mean percentage practice score in all items (hand hygiene (71.28±25.46, compared with 46.15±17.87), oral care (100.0±0.0, compared with 25.32±24.25), catheter care (75.76±9.40, compared with 8.97±24.14) and skin care (47.80±6.79, compared with 26.28±16.57). Barriers for implementing hand hygiene are workload (71.79%), insufficient resources (61.53%), and lack of knowledge (10.25%)., Conclusion: The mean percentage IPH knowledge score is higher than the mean percentage IPH practice score of all IPH items. Barriers for implementing IPH include workload, insufficient resources, and lack of knowledge/training., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Central venous catheter-related infection (CVC-RI) is considered a common cause of increased morbidity, mortality, and medical care costs in intensive care units (ICUs). The objective in this descriptive study was to assess the knowledge of health care workers in ICUs about guidelines for the prevention of CVC-RI and their adherence to these guidelines in practices., Methods: Health care workers were assessed for their actual practices during central venous catheter (CVC) insertion and care. Then a questionnaire was distributed to the health care workers to assess their knowledge regarding the prevention of CVC-RI., Results: All the health care workers (N = 100; 40 physicians, 60 nurses) in the ICUs (levels I and III and triage) of Alexandria Main University Hospital participated in the present study. The response rate was 100%. The total percentage of correct answers of the health care workers about the guidelines for the prevention of CVC-RI was low. There was no significant difference between physicians' and nurses' knowledge regarding the total score on the questionnaire (P = .134). However, physicians had a significantly higher knowledge about the pathophysiology of CVC-RI and skin antisepsis items than nurses. There were no significant differences between the knowledge of physicians and nurses in other items except for CVC care, where nurses showed significantly higher knowledge than physicians (P = .001)., Conclusion: The results of the present study revealed health care worker's low knowledge regarding the prevention of CVC-RI and low compliance with the standard guidelines of CVC care. Therefore, health care workers should be periodically evaluated for their knowledge and practices regarding guidelines for the prevention of CVC-RI., (Copyright © 2015 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)