Federation University: NURBN3022 HREC Application on NSIs Prevention

This document presents a sample Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) application for a quantitative cross-sectional study investigating interventions used by healthcare workers in Australia to prevent needle stick injuries (NSIs). The project aims to assess healthcare workers' knowledge of NSI risk factors and evaluate current preventive measures, utilizing an online survey questionnaire distributed to 200 participants across two Melbourne hospitals. The research, led by Dr. Joanne Porter from the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare at Federation University, seeks to address the significant incidence of NSIs, aiming to identify the most effective interventions and contribute to the reduction of associated burdens. The study details the research aims, methodology, participant recruitment, data collection, and analysis methods, emphasizing the use of SPSS for statistical analysis. The study is designed to determine the interventions most frequently used by healthcare staff to prevent NSIs and compare it with current best practices to reduce the burden of such infection among the nursing workforce. The findings are expected to inform best practices and enhance reporting of such injuries among healthcare workers. The application adheres to ethical guidelines and includes detailed information about the project's objectives, significance, and relevance to current research, supported by relevant literature.

Sample Application for
HREC Approval
(NURBN3022)
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1. PROJECT DETAILS
2. RESEARCHERS
Total word limit for this assessment item is 2000 words
Project title:
Interventions used by health care workers to prevent needle stick injuries in Australia
What type of project is this? (Tick as many as apply)
Masters project Clinical Trial Postgraduate Diploma
Undergraduate Student Research Project Honours
PhD Staff Research Project Other
Through which School/Section is the research to be conducted?
Principal Researcher (STAFF MEMBER ONLY)
Title & Name: Dr Joanne Porter
Position: Senior Lecturer
School/Section: School of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare
Phone number: 51 236996
Email address: [e-mail]
Please list academic qualifications: PhD, MN, GradDipCC, GradDipHSM, GradCertHeD,
BN, RN
Describe what this researcher will do in
the context of this project:
The lead researcher will be an expert guide though all
aspects of the project.
Include a brief summary of relevant
experience for this project:
Supervision of higher degree students, multiple
publications to peer reviewed journals and successful
competitive grants applications.
Student/Other Researcher/s
Title & Name:
Position:
School/Section:
Phone number:
Email address:
Student ID number:
Please list academic qualifications:
Describe what this researcher will do in
the context of this project:
Include a brief summary of relevant
experience for this project:

4. RESEARCH AIMS & SIGNIFICANCE
Sample Application for
HREC Approval
(NURBN3022)
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3. LAY DESCRIPTION
Provide a brief outline of the project describing in everyday, jargon-free language the key aspects
of the research (e.g., who will be participating, what information will be collected and by what
means, what participants will be required to do, etc.) and the key research aims. (300 words max.)
By the use of a cross sectional quantitative research design, the main aim of this project is to assess
health workers knowledge regarding the risk factors of NSIS and evaluate current preventive measures
used by them to reduce injuries from needle while engaging in activities like venepuncture. The cross
sectional study will be done from the period of September 2019 to December 2019 in two hospitals of
Melbourne city, Australia. Focus will be to choose those hospital where there is large patient flow and with
at least 200 bed. This will help to select a sample size of at least 200 health care professionals and collect
relevant data from them using the survey questionnaires. The participants will be made aware of the
nature, purpose, risk and benefits associated with the research and they will be included in the research
after taking informed consent.
The data related to the research question will be mainly collected by the use of online survey
method. The survey questionnaire will be prepared by experts in the health care field and those
associated with infection control. The questionnaire will have three parts. The first part will collect data
related to demographic details of participants, the second part will test knowledge regarding cause of
needle stick injuries and third part will focus on evaluating the common methods used by participants to
prevent such injuries and the rate of frequency of reporting about such injuries by nurse and other staffs.
Each participant will be give the option to complete the online survey questionnaire and submit it within
two days. The online survey questionnaire will be distributed to each participant by email. The collected
response from participants will be analyzed in SPSS and the frequency distribution and percentage will be
calculated. The statistical analysis will help to determine the interventions most frequently used by health
care staffs to prevent NSIs and compare it with current best practices to reduce the burden of such
infection among nursing workforce.
State the aims, key research questions, and significance of the project. Also provide a brief
description of the relevance of your proposed project to current research, supported by the
literature. (500 words max.)
The main aim of this health project is to find the most common interventions used by health care
professionals in Australia to prevent needle stick injuries (NSIs) and evaluate the efficacy of the
intervention in reducing the burden and cost associated with NSIs. As the incidence of NSIs threatens

Sample Application for
HREC Approval
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physical and psychological well being of health care workers, this projects aims to find solution to the
issue by the following research question:
How effective is the intervention used by health care workers to prevent risk of NSIs in Australia?
The current project aims to find answer to the research question by the use of primary research
method using survey questionnaire. The significance of the research topic is understood from the growing
incidence of needle stick injuries in health care setting. According to Medical Technology Association of
Australia (2019), 30 needle stick injuries occur per 100 beds per year in Australia. The number of
Australian health care professional affected by the injuries includes 18000 per year. These statistics
shows the significance of paying attention to the issue and identifying relevant interventions that could
reduce the burden of such injuries in Australia. Current research highlights many challenges associated
with NSIs. According to Joukar et al. (2018), the key challenge related to prevalence of NSIs is that
documentation of such exposure is negligible. Fear of job loss and lack of knowledge about NSI
importance are some of the reasons behind none reporting of the injury. Kebede and Gerensea (2018)
explained that the likelihood of risk to NSI is higher for nurses who do not use personal protective
equipment and those who work greater than 40 hours per week. The study gave the implication to create
awareness or skill developments of staffs on safety measures to prevent NSIs. The relevance of this
project to current research is that it will raise awareness regarding the importance of taking effective
preventive steps to prevent NSIs and adapt best practice steps to reduce burden as well as enhance
reporting of such injuries among health care workers.
This project mainly seeks to identify the effectiveness of current interventions used by care staffs
to reduce incidence of NSIs and identify need of any further interventions to reduce rate of NSIs and
hospitalization due to such injuries. The significance of focusing on best interventions to prevent NSIs is
understood from the gap in skills and knowledge of staffs to prevent such injury. Qazi et al. (2016)
highlighted that awareness about ways to prevent NSIs and control infection among health care worker is
low. Insufficient information retention and adherence to safety measure was low suggesting the need for
alternative intervention to enhance protective steps to reduce NSIs. Another study investigating about the
knowledge and prevalence of NSIs among nursing staffs working in hemodialysis unit gave the idea that
knowledge related to risk of NSIs and use of preventive steps was inadequate for nurse. This study gave
the implication to identify ways to address gaps in knowledge, attitude and work practice related to NSI
hazards among nurse and focus on future research in this area. Hence, the relevance of this research
project with current research based evidence is that it aims to address knowledge gap by evaluating the
effectiveness and efficacy of current NSI interventions with respect to reducing such incidence and identify
need for additional safety measures or equipment to promote occupation safety of nurses.

Sample Application for
HREC Approval
(NURBN3022)
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5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Provide an outline of the proposed method, including details of data collection techniques, tasks
participants will be asked to do, the estimated time commitment involved, and how data will be
analysed. (500 words max).
Research method: The research will be done using quantitative cross sectional method by conducting
research in two hospitals in Melbourne. The main rational behind choosing quantitative method is that it
will be collect information from large number of participants in a small time (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). .
In addition, quantitative research method is suitable to assess the frequency of any event (in this case
incidence of NSI and types of interventions used. Hence, this nature of research will favour participation of
large nursing workforce despite workload and other commitments. In addition, the benefits of using cross
sectional method are that it will allow analysis and comparison of different variables at the same time
(Salazar, Crosby & DiClemente, 2015). Hence, using this research design, different research variables
such as knowledge related to NSIs, cause of NSIs, interventions to prevent NSI and frequency of reporting
such injury cases can be analyzed. The chosen research method is relevant and congruent with the
research aim and research question.
Data collection technique:
For data collection, survey method has been chosen. Survey method is a widely used quantitative
method where a predetermined question is provided to a sample population. The key advantage of using
this research method is that it can help to explore features or practices of a large population. This
research mainly aims to evaluate preventive practices in response to NSIs and the set of survey
questionnaires will help to discover common trends among health care staffs to control risk of infection
due to NSIs. The survey will be conducted through online format and the survey questionnaire will be
distributed by email. The survey question will have three parts and the participants will have to give
response via email within two days. The following data will be collected from the survey questionnaire:
1. First part will collect details on age, gender, marital status, work experience, number of shifts per week
and working hours per week
2. Second part will collect data on staff’s opinion about causes of NSIs
3. The third will question participants on types of preventive steps taken to prevent such injury and they
opinion about reporting about such events.
To ensure the validity of the questionnaire, care will also be taken to ensure that the questionnaire
is distributed to few infection experts and confirm the validity of the survey content. To ensure proper
response and ease of understanding of survey questions, a pilot study with 10 staffs will be done to
evaluate the reliability of the content.
Estimated time involved: It is estimated to complete the whole research within 3 months. The first month
will focus on seeking ethical approval, recruitment of participants and completing the informed consent
process. The second month will focus on development of survey questionnaire, dissemination of survey

Sample Application for
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questionnaire and collecting response from the participants. The third month will involve careful analysis of
the results to evaluate knowledge and practices to control NSI rate.
Data analysis method: Statistical analysis of the data will be done using SPSS and use of indicators like
frequency distribution and frequency percentage. This will help to interpret history and experiences of NSI,
causes of NSI according to staffs and most common method employed to reduce such errors.
6. RECRUITMENT OF PARTICIPANTS
Participant Details
Describe your proposed recruitment strategy to source target participants. Provide the number and
age range, giving a justification of your proposed sample size. (100 words)
The main target participants for this study will include health care professionals working in the two
hospital settings. The criteria for inclusion of nurse in the study will include age between 25 to 50
years, work experience of at least three months in the ward and a bachelor’s degree qualification.
Random sampling method will be used to select 200 health care staffs from the selected hospitals.
The main rational for choosing 200 sample group includes measuring common trends related to
most preferred interventions used by health professionals and use of survey method which will
favor collecting response from 200 individuals in small time. Only those participants will be
included in the study, who fulfils the inclusion criteria and those who signs the informed consent
form.
Target participants
Who are the target participants? (Tick as many as applicable)
Students or staff of this University
Adults (over the age of 18 years and competent to give consent)
Children/legal minors (under the age of 18 years, with parental consent)*
Elderly individuals
Individuals from non–English-speaking backgrounds
Pensioners or welfare recipients

Sample Application for
HREC Approval
(NURBN3022)
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Intellectually or mentally impaired individuals unable/with compromised capacity to provide
consent
Physically disabled individuals
Patients or clients
Prisoners, parolees, or wards of the state
Individuals highly dependent on medical care with a compromised capacity to give consent
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Island communities
Women who are pregnant and the human foetus
People who may be involved in illegal activities
*Parental consent may not be required in some instances - refer National Statement, 4.2.8 & 4.2.9
7. RISK MANAGEMENT
This section raises the issue of your duty of care toward research participants. To what risks are
participants subjected? What will you do should an emergency occur, or should a participant
become upset or distressed? What is your risk management strategy?
Refer National Statement: Section 2.1 Risk and Benefit
Research Activities
Which of the following activities will the research involve? (Tick as many as apply)
Use of a questionnaire (attach copy)
Interviews (attach interview questions)
Observation of participants without their knowledge
Participant observation
Audio- or video-taping of interviewees or events
Access to personal and/or confidential data (including student, patient or client data) without
participants’ specific consent
Administration of any stimuli, tasks, investigations or procedures which may be experienced
by participants as physically or mentally painful, stressful or unpleasant during or after the
research process
Performance of any acts which may diminish the self-esteem of participants or cause them to
experience embarrassment, regret or depression
Use of non-treatment of placebo control conditions
Collection of body tissues or fluid samples

8. CONSENT
9. INFORMATION PROTECTION (DATA STORAGE & SECURITY)
Sample Application for
HREC Approval
(NURBN3022)
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Identify as far as possible all potential risks to participants (e.g., physical, psychological, social,
legal, economic) associated with the proposed research. Explain what risk management
procedures will be put in place, along with contact details of an appropriately qualified organisation
for participant reference in case of distress, eg: Lifeline (200 words)
To ensure protection of research participants from any harm, all participants will be made aware of the
nature of research. As it is not an experimental study and just collection of opinion of staffs, there is no risk
in terms of health outcome. This is mainly because the research only uses survey questionnaire to collect
response from participants. Another possibility of risk to participants in any research method is the
inappropriate use of confidential and personal data of participants. However, this risk will be considered
and it will be managed by no use of personal details like name and address in the survey. The participants
name will be kept unanimous and this will not be disclosed at any point of the research. As the survey
used online format, the risk occurring due to audio or video taping is also minimized. In addition, time can
also be a barrier for some participants. This has been considered too as all participants will be given two
days time to complete the survey and filling the survey will take maximum 15 minutes.
Obtaining and Documenting Consent
How will informed consent be obtained/recorded?
Signed consent form
Recorded verbal consent
Implied by return of survey
Other (Please specify):
Confidentiality
Tick which method will be used to guarantee confidentiality/anonymity?
Non-identifiable (anonymous) data, which have never been labelled with individual
identifiers or from which identifiers have been permanently removed, and by means of
which no specific individual can be identified.
Re-identifiable data, from which identifiers have been removed and replaced by a code,
but it remains possible to re-identify a specific individual by, for example, using the code or
linking different data sets.
Individually identifiable data, where the identity of a specific individual can reasonably be
ascertained. Examples of identifiers include the individual’s name, image, and date of birth
or address.
Security and Storage
Does the Principal Researcher accept responsibility for the security of the data
collected?
Yes
Who will have access to data?

Sample Application for
HREC Approval
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Access by named researchers only Access by other(s) than named researcher(s)

10. RESEARCH TOOLS
Sample Application for
HREC Approval
(NURBN3022)
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Which of the following methods will be used to ensure data security?
Data will be kept in locked filing cabinets
Data and identifiers will be kept in separate, locked filing cabinets
Access to computer files will be available by password only
Other (please describe)
Please check that the following documents are included in your application by writing in the box
below (300 words)
Are the following research tools are included in this
application?
Yes No N/A
Questionnaire Draft
Interview Questions Draft
Other
Survey questionnaire is included in the application form. The survey question has three parts consisting of
sections on demographic details, knowledge and perception related to NSI and interventions implemented
to reduce the incidence
The following is the detailed list of survey questionnaire:
Part 1: Demographic details of participant
Q1. How old are you?
Q2. What is your gender?
Q3. Are you married or single?
Q4. What is your highest qualification?
Q5. How much work experience do you have as a health care worker?
Q6.What is the average number of hours you work per week?
Part 2: Knowledge and perception related to NSI
Q1. Did you ever experienced any past history of NSIs?
Q2. Can you tell what are the causes of NSIs ?
Q3. Are you aware about the implications of NSI?
Q4. What precautions you have taken to reduce risk of sharp injuries?
Q5. Do you think hospital related factors contribute to NSIs?
Q6. How far has your organization supported you in preventing and dealing with NSIs?
Q7. Do you take care while using needles and syringe is important? Why?
Q8. What change you want to reduce burden of NSIs?
Q9. What are the barriers for you in using safety devices?

Sample Application for
HREC Approval
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Q10. What is the facilitating factor for you that will aid in NSI prevention?
Part 3: Preventive measures or interventions implemented by health care workers
Q1. What measures are in place in your hospital to reduce NSI?
Q2. What methods you use to prevent NSIs?
Q3. Have you experienced challenges in applying your intervention in clinical setting
Q3. Do you find your preventive methods to be useful in preventing NSIs?
Q4. Do you want additional supports in terms of training or equipments to reduce burden of NSIs?
Q5. Please recommend some measures or your expectation regarding changes in the clinical setting to
decrease the burden of NSI or sharp injuries.

Sample Application for
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References:
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. Sage publications.
Joukar, F., Mansour-Ghanaei, F., Naghipour, M., & Asgharnezhad, M. (2018). Needlestick Injuries among
Healthcare Workers: Why They Do Not Report their Incidence?. Iranian journal of nursing and
midwifery research, 23(5), 382–387. doi:10.4103/ijnmr.IJNMR_74_17
Kebede, A., & Gerensea, H. (2018). Prevalence of needle stick injury and its associated factors among
nurses working in public hospitals of Dessie town, Northeast Ethiopia, 2016. BMC research
notes, 11(1), 413. doi:10.1186/s13104-018-3529-9
Medical Technology Association of Australia. (2019). Use of safety-engineered medical devices (SEMDs)
To improve prevention of needlestick and sharps injuries in the healthcare setting. Retrieved from:
https://www.mtaa.org.au/sites/default/files/uploaded-content/website-content/Sharpsv5.pdf
Qazi, A. R., Siddiqui, F. A., Faridi, S., Nadeem, U., Umer, N. I., Mohsini, Z. S., ... & Khan, M. (2016).
Comparison of awareness about precautions for needle stick injuries: a survey among health care
workers at a tertiary care center in Pakistan. Patient safety in surgery, 10(1), 19.
Salazar, L. F., Crosby, R. A., & DiClemente, R. J. (Eds.). (2015). Research methods in health promotion.
John Wiley & Sons.

Sample Application for
HREC Approval
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11. DECLARATIONS
Researcher Declarations:
The information contained herein is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, accurate. I have read
the University’s current human ethics guidelines, and accept responsibility for the conduct of the
procedures set out in the attached application in accordance with the guidelines. I and my co-
researchers have the appropriate qualifications, experience and facilities to conduct the research
set out in the attached application and to deal with any emergencies and contingencies related to
the
research that may arise.
Principal Researcher
DR JOANNE PORTER
(Print name in block letters)
Date: …..../…...../….....
Other Researcher
………………………………………………
(Print name in block letters)
Date: …..../…...../….....
Other Researcher
…………………………………………………
(Print name in block letters)
Date: …..../…...../….....