Chiropractic students’ views on needle stick injuries and protocols at a South African university

Abstract

Background: Needle stick injuries (NSIs) pose serious occupational risks for health professionals and students, with psychological and physical consequences. Despite increased awareness, NSIs persist. Research focussing on chiropractic students’ perspectives on NSIs and related protocols is limited, in South Africa and internationally.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of chiropractic students towards NSIs and related protocols.

Setting: This study was undertaken at the Chiropractic Department, University of Johannesburg.

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative study involving an adapted anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to undergraduate Bachelor of Health Sciences and postgraduate Master of Health Sciences (BHSc and MHSc) chiropractic students. Data were analysed using frequencies, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations to identify relationships in the data.

Results: The respondents (n = 107; 42% response rate) had a mean age of 22.83 years and were mostly females (76.6%), which showed high NSI knowledge (88.58%; s.d. = 9.455); however, postgraduates scored higher overall (p < 0.001). While both groups were well informed about risks and protocols, undergraduates emphasised the need for Hepatitis B vaccination (p = 0.021) and reporting of unused sterile needle injuries (p = 0.010), further highlighting variances between the cohorts.

Conclusion: Chiropractic students exhibited good NSI knowledge, postgraduates more so, but attitudes and reporting behaviours’ varied. Enhanced, standardised education on the urgency of reporting NSIs is recommended to improve protocol and safety practices. Future research should explore long-term NSI protocol adherence.

Contribution: This study provides important baseline South African data on perspectives of NSI in a chiropractic student cohort.