Abstract
Background: Occupational injuries such as needlestick, workplace violence, burnout, and falls; and occupational diseases, such as tuberculosis, HIV/Aids, Covid-19, and Hepatitis B are among the leading work-related incidents reported in health care workers.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess factors involved in occupational incidents reporting at King Cetshwayo District primary care facilities, in KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa.
Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study design. Convenience sampling was used to collect data from participants. Data collection took place from May to June 2022. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 363 healthcare workers working in primary care facilities. Seven questions relating to occupational incident-reporting were factor analyzed using principal components analysis with varimax rotation.
Results: Our findings indicate that Covid-19 was the highest reported occupational disease (54.8%), followed by HIV/AIDS (10%). Occupational injuries reported included falls (26.4%), needle stick injuries (25.0%), backpain (12.4%) and assault (6.3%). Factors such as profession, age, work experience and gender contributed to the pattern of reporting of occupational incidents. Access to OHS information, functional and effective OHS committee, support, clear protocols and protection of personal information improved voluntary occupational incident reporting. On the other hand, fear of litigation, severity and infectiousness of diseases, costs of incidents enforce compliance with occupational incident-reporting protocols.
Conclusions:
Our study revealed that Covid-19 disease was the most reported occupational disease reported. On the other hand, occupational injuries such as needle stick injuries were less reported compared to global trends of reporting. The findings of this study provide evidence of the factors associated with incident reporting among healthcare workers working in King Cetshwayo District primary care facilities. Future research should focus on intervention studies related to reducing occupational incidents in the workplace.
Keywords: Occupational exposure; occupational incidents in primary care; needlestick injuries; health care worker; incident reporting; occupational diseases.