Background & Objectives: Nursing and midwifery students are at risk needlestick/sharps injuries (NSIs/Sis). Actual number of NSIs/SIs among students due to insufficient reporting it is not clear in Iran. The aim of this study was to explore the barriers of not reporting of NSIs/SIs among nursing students.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Arak University of Medical Sciences in 2009. 207 and 68 nursing and midwifery students were participated in study, respectively. A questionnaire, consisting two sections of demographic information and questions about exposure to (NSIs/SIs) and frequency and barrier reporting of NSIs/SIs, was completed by students.
Results: According to the findings, 43% and 20.5% of nursing and midwifery students had experienced at least one contaminated NSIs/Sis in the past 12 months. Only 44.9 % (n=40) and 50% (n=7) of the nursing and midwifery who had experienced NSIs/Sis in the previous year, were reported all exposures to NSIs/Sis, respectively. The most important the reasons for not reporting injuries consisted of low probabilities of the infection risk of the injury source, not familiar with reporting process and fear of decreasing evaluation score.
Conclusion: NSIs/SIs and non-reporting of NSIs/SIs were highly prevalent in nursing and midwifery students. More education programs should be directed at students to increase their awareness of about NSIs/SIs. Also nursing and midwifery student’s instructors should give positive responses to nursing students for reporting NSIs/SIs.

Keywords: Needlestick injuries, Sharps injuries, Reporting, Nursing student, Midwifery student

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