Occupational Health Hazards: A Research Proposal for Nurses' Safety

This report presents a research proposal focusing on the occupational health hazards faced by nurses, particularly in the context of tertiary hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The study aims to explore the experiences of nurses regarding needle stick injuries and other potential workplace hazards, such as exposure to blood-borne pathogens. The research design involves qualitative data collection through semi-structured interviews with nurses who have varying years of experience. The interviews will cover topics like the types, frequency, and causes of injuries, as well as perceptions of and measures taken to address occupational hazards. The data collected will be transcribed, analyzed thematically, and the anonymity of the participants will be strictly maintained. The research seeks to understand the factors contributing to these hazards and to suggest improvements to enhance the safety of healthcare workers, with a projected completion time of three months after ethical approval.

Research methodology:
Research design:
The question of health hazards like needle stick injuries (Vaz, Salelkar, Motghare &
Kulkarni, 2019) among nurses and health workers and the reasons behind them has always been
an initiator of debates. While some acknowledge the fact that such risks are primarily caused by
the hospital setting, other opine that lack of skill among nurses and reckless endangerment of
personal safety because of limited knowledge contribute to such mishaps (Afridi, Kumar &
Sayani, 2019). This paper investigates the same by interviewing the professionals with the help
of a questionnaire meant for the concerned group of professionals. The aim of this remains the
qualitative exploration via interview to reach a conclusion. Even though the literature review
indicates the prevalence of negligence on the part of the nursing staffs to be the major reason
behind such health risks, the interview method shall try to bring a fresh perspective leading to the
issue by introducing experiences of the participants. Diseases like HIV or hepatitis are
considered as risk in case of needle stick injuries as these communicable ailments are spread by
blood of the infected and by extension, the syringes used on such patients (Saini, 2019) (Taylor,
Bogdan & DeVault, 2015) (Yao et al., 2019). This study also intends to conceive the whole
process maintaining anonymity of the participants opinions by imposing total confidentiality.
The researchers were chosen to be experts of the field to understand various perspectives an
views of the nurses on which the process is being conducted.
Participant recruitment:
The research will include the tertiary hospitals of the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia
and process was preceded with permission from the hospital administrators and nursing leaders.

They will be mandatorily provided with all the details regarding the intent of research, design of
the reaserch procedure, confidentiality guidelines, consequences of research, its findings and the
jeopardy as well as the benefits to which research participants subjected. After acquiring the
required approvals for the research, the nurses working in selected hospital setting will be
contacted and they will also be provided with the necessary guidelines and made aware of the
terms of the study to ensure transparency and to avoid any misinterpretations. In addition to that,
the guidelines of the Research Ethics Committee of Malaysia, if any, were also imposed
mandatorily. They criteria for the selection of participants in the study was that nurses with
working experience of 0-10 years were only eligible.
Data collection:
As mentioned previously, the data required for this study was collected by conducting of
personal interviews. The semi-structured interview included a list of ten questionnaires relevant
to the objective of the research (M, 2019). The questionnaire focused on topics like types of
injuries that the medical professionals in concern have suffered or are exposed to, location or
activities that contributed to such occupational hazards, frequency of mishaps. Other points of
interests remained concerned with the attitude and perception towards such occupational hazards,
perception and measures taken for the amendments of such accidents in hospital setting and
suggestions to reduce such injury in the future. The interview will be conducted by personnel
with considerable experience in the field to ensure technical accuracy and will be audio recorded
for further references. To ensure maximum transparency during the process of data collection,
the interviewers will repeated the answers provided by the participants so that the correct answer
is only recorded.

Data analysis:
The data collected from the interview will be transcribed exactly, to be noted by two
research staffs. The final answers will be recorded after agreement between the two scribers is
achieved. In case, such consensus is not achieved, a third reviewer will intervene to resolve the
issue. After the themes are identified, sub-themes will be created if needed. The entire study
should ensure discretion and privacy to preserve the participants responses. This will also help to
include the participant’s personal experiences in the matter and express the views in different
ways (Braun et al., 2018). It is anticipated that the total time period of the study should not
exceed 3 months after getting approval from the Research Ethics Committee of Malaysia.
References:
Afridi, A., Kumar, A., & Sayani, R. (2019). Needle Stick Injuries – Risk and Preventive Factors:
A Study among Health Care Workers in Tertiary Care Hospitals in Pakistan. Retrieved 17
July 2019, from
M, R. (2019). Evaluating needlestick injuries in nursing personnel. Development of a
questionnaire. - PubMed - NCBI. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1930383
Saini, R. (2019). Knowledge and awareness of needlestick injury among students of Rural Dental
College, Maharashtra, India. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from
Vaz, F., Salelkar, S., Motghare, D., & Kulkarni, M. (2019). Study of needle stick injuries among
health care workers at a tertiary care hospital. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from
Yao, W., Yang, B., Yao, C., Bai, P., Qian, Y., Huang, C., & Liu, M. (2019). Needlestick injuries
among nursing students in China. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from
(2019). Retrieved 17 July 2019, from https://www.ejmanager.com/mnstemps/67/67-
1413661340.pdf?t=1563386045