Awareness and Practice of Injection Safety among the Staff Nurses Working in El-Beyda Medical Center

Background: Unsafe injection practices put patients and healthcare providers at risk of infectious and non-infectious adverse events, sound awareness and skillful practices of work staff are vital to breaks the chain of blood borne diseases transmission caused by unsafe injection practices. Objectives: to assess the awareness and the practice towards injection safety and to determine the factors associated with it among nurses working in in El-beyda Medical Center, El-beyda city, Libya. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Albayda Medical Center from March 2023 to June 2023. A sample size of 220 nurses was selected randomly. A questionnaire and observation check list was used to gather the information. Nursing education, work experience, training on injection safety (universal precautions) . Result: a predominantly female workforce (77%) with a relatively young age profile, as the majority (43.18%) were between 20–30 years old. awareness regarding the transmission of diseases via NSI (91.8%) and the need for proper disposal (91.3%) was high, dangerous practices remain prevalent. Specifically, the recapping of needles, a major risk factor for injury was practiced by a significant majority, with 60.9% of nurses reporting this behavior. Furthermore, 57.3% of respondents admitted to always recapping needles. Despite the high risk of exposure, only 22.2% of nurses were immunized against Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). Statistically, work experience showed a significant association with NSI (P = 0.016), peaking in mid-career nurses (5-9 years experience). CONCLUSION: The study showed a high level awareness of regarding injection safety, this does not translate into safe practice. The prevalence of NSI is high, driven by unsafe habits such as needle recapping and environmental factors like hasty work conditions. The healthcare system currently exhibits critical vulnerabilities, specifically the dangerously low rate of HBV vaccination among staff and the complete absence of an NSI reporting culture.