ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD AND SAFETY MEASURES AMONG NURSES AT HADEJIA GENERAL HOSPITAL JIGAWA STATE

Occupational hazards is an injury or ailment resulting from the work that one’s does or from the environment in which ones works. It encompasses many hazards such as chemical, biological, psychological and physical hazards. The study was conducted in Hadejia General Hospital Jigawa State and was limited all Health care workers at Hadejia General Hospital. The objectives of the study are to determine the level of knowledge of health care workers on occupational hazard at Hadejia General hospital, to assess the attitude of Health care workers toward universal precaution and safety measures at Hadejia General hospital and to find out health care workers level of utilization of universal precaution and safety measures at Hadejia General hospital. A descriptive survey research design was adopted while conducting the study in 380 Health care workers as the population sample. Participative observation, a structured Questionnaire is an instrument for data collection which consist of Section (A, B, C and D), Section A was design to elicit information on research socio demographic data of the respondent, while Section B, C and D design elicit information on the research questions guiding the study. The data are presented using frequency distribution table and percentage. The result of the study revealed that majority of the respondents 78(40%) are young adult within a range age of 21-30 and 65(33.3%) aged 31-40 years, 195(100%) of the respondent are aware of the occupational hazards with a needle pricking (40%) as the most common occupational hazards encounter, about 130(66.7%) of the respondents agreed that Universal precaution are necessary requirements for patients safety. More than half of the respondents 104(53.3%) are always adhere to proper hand hygiene. It was recommended that, the health care institutions should organize regular in service training and workshops on occupational safety, proper PPE use and hazards prevention to sustain and improve the current high level of knowledge. The management should ensure consistent and adequate supply of quality PPE to all Health care workers to address 20%%-26.7% who reported issues with availability and assurance.