Abstract

This descriptive survey was carried out to investigate the level of knowledge on the predisposing factors to occupational hazards among nurses in health facilities in Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria. The study population consisted of nurses of varying categories working in ten public and two privately owned health facilities in five local government areas of the state. The simple random sampling technique was employed in selecting 1,200 respondents across the health facilities. A validated structured questionnaire developed with reliability of 0.79 was used to collect information. Data collected were analysed using the SPSS package version 12.0. The results revealed that 5.7% of the respondents were males, 94.3% were females, and 37.1% were single while 62.9% were married. Among the respondents, 44.8% were between 21-30 years of age, 15.2% between 31-40 years and 23.8% between 41-50 years while the remaining 16.2% were aged 51 years and above. Four hundred and sixty-nine (39.1%) respondents have 1- 10 years working experience while 60.9% have spent 11 years and above in the nursing profession. It was found that 96.2% of the respondents knew that the profession is prone to occupational hazards, and as expressed by 88.6% of the respondents, back injury is the commonest hazard, followed by neck and back pain as attested to by 84.8% of the nurses. The most prominent predisposing factor is prolonged standing as viewed by 84.5% of the sample. Avoidance of lifting of patients and heavy equipment, among others, is the most notable way of avoiding occupational hazards as attested to by 90.5% respondents. Nursing professionals should therefore make conscious and concerted efforts to minimize avoidable occupational hazards in the course of discharging their duties, so that their health would not be jeopardized.