Hospital psiquiátrico: o risco biológico para a equipe de enfermagem

Abstract

The nursing staff performs procedures, which often involve the handling of sharpened material, which offers risk of exposure to biological material. The frequency of these procedures in psychiatric hospitals has not been quantified, nor the risks that professionals are exposed. To avoid accidents, the adoption of Standard Precautions (SP) is necessary. The Hand Hygiene (HH) is an important strategy for prevention and control of Infections Related to Health Care (IRHC). This was an exploratory and crosssectional study, quantitative in nature, with the purpose of identifying the biological risk situations that nursing professionals in care are exposed are subject, performed in a psychiatric hospital of the interior of state of São Paulo, Brazil. We observed 830 nursing procedures, wich 40.6% offer moderate to high risk of biological exposure. The quantitative of biological high-risk procedures was not significant, however, the unexpected situations that arise during the care of these patients, intensify this exposure. Became evident an accident with sharpened material and various situations and behaviors that exposes professional to the risk, for example, the improper handling and disposal of sharpened material and non-adherence to the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The HH was below recommended, with an adhesion rate of 0.96%. In some situations was observed low compliance with good practices of prevention and control of IRHC, especially the indiscriminate and inappropriate use of gloves. Was noticed that the adhesion to SP was strongly influenced by individual, labor and organizational factors. Significant difference was observed between the professions of nursing and nursing assistant, and the latter showed low levels of training and low perceived availability of PPE, contributing negatively to adherence to preventive action. It was evident that the support offered by the institution to the professionals did not improve the adoption of the SP, making the organizational factors one of most relevant. It is necessary that institutions provide safe working conditions and continued training to nursing staff, contributing to the advance in the control of IRHC and in adherence to standard precautions. It was concluded that the professional nursing staff are exposed to biological risk and that this research was the first nationally and internationally on this topic in a psychiatric institution. The fact that the results portray the reality of this hospital can be considered a limitation of this study, however contributed to the expansion of knowledge about biological risk, control of IRHC and adherence to SP in psychiatric hospitals. Thus, it is expected to encourage further research in other institutions and mental health services that might contribute to achieving safer assistance for professionals and care for patients with psychiatric disorders.