A. The effects of stress and overwork on nurses’ health was cited as the top health and safety concern by 71% of respondents to a recent ANA–NursingWorld.org online survey. Yet nurses continue to be pushed hard by employers, with 67% of those surveyed reporting that they worked some form of mandatory or unplanned overtime every month.

Of the 4,826 nurses who responded to the ANA Health and Safety Survey, 60% expressed concern about the possibility of sustaining a disabling back injury. A troubling 83% said they continued working despite experiencing pain. While lifting and transfer devices can greatly reduce the risk of back injury, fewer than half of the facilities where these nurses were employed made them readily available. Nearly 75% said that they use these devices when they are available.

Needlestick injury was another top concern of the surveyed nurses. Despite recent protections provided by the Federal Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act of 2000, 45% of respondents said they fear contracting HIV or hepatitis from a needlestick injury. This is understandable given that 20% of nurses reported that their facilities do not provide safe devices for injections, iv insertions, and phlebotomy procedures. Until the devices that cause needle sticks are replaced by safe ones, nurses have reason to fear. Recently, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) began monitoring compliance with the new federal law, which should increase safe device usage.

Other significant concerns included infection with tuberculosis or another disease (37%), on-the-job assault (25%), latex allergy (21%), and fatigue-related car accident (19%).

Fewer than 20% of nurses responding to the survey felt well protected from work-related injury and illness in their current environment. Seventeen percent had been physically assaulted in the past year and more than half (57%) had been threatened or verbally abused. The presence of known hazards continues; 61% of respondents reported that powdered latex gloves—which can cause severe allergic reactions and sensitization in workers and patients—continue to be used in their facilities.

The overwhelming majority of respondents (88%) reported that health and safety concerns influence their decisions about whether to continue working in the field of nursing as well as about the kind of nursing work they choose to perform. More than three quarters of these respondents indicated that unsafe conditions for nursing staff members interfere with their ability to deliver high-quality care. Yet 38% of the nurses surveyed feel that their employers are not doing enough to keep them informed of dangerous or unsafe working conditions.

The 2001 ANA Health and Safety Survey was commissioned by the ANA, conducted July 11 through Aug. 15 via the ANA’s Web site, www.NursingWorld.org, and analyzed by Cornerstone Communications, which also collaborated on the ANA Staffing Survey released in January 2001. Given the extent of the health and safety concerns expressed by the nurses surveyed, the ANA makes the following general recommendations to nurses to help them begin to address these issues:

• Voice your concerns to your safety committee and provide documentation of any unsafe conditions in your facility.

• Ask to see the injury and illness data for your nursing unit.

• Work with your purchasing department to make safe needle devices, non-latex gloves, and lifting–transfer devices available.

• Talk to your state nurses’ association about health and safety resources and advocacy efforts.

• Include health and safety considerations in your facility’s strategy to address the nursing shortage.

Resources

ANA–NursingWorld.org Online Health and Safety Survey
www.NursingWorld.org/surveys/index.htm#hssurvey

JCAHO Sentinel Event Alert—Issue 22: Preventing Needlestick and Sharps Injuries
www.jcaho.org/edu_pub/sealert/sea22.html

Karen Worthington is a senior occupational health and safety specialist at the ANA..

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