Needlestick injuries among obstetrics and gynecology trainees: A study design to investigate an underestimated priority

Risk of needlestick injuries (NSIs) is high in surgical staff. Medical students and trainees have reported the highest rate of NSIs, and Obstetrics and Gynecology is considered a high-risk specialty. The risk associated to NSIs is further increased by the high prevalence of blood borne pathogens in the population. Nevertheless, the degree of concern about contraction of these serious infections has been reported significantly lower over time, showing diminishing attitudes toward prevention of exposure and lack of consideration as a major problem, in fact most of NSIs resulted unreported. Therefore, education is fundamental to change individual attitudes and behaviors, to improve awareness and increase the use of standard protections, in order to reduce the injury rate and implement reporting to hospital surveillance systems. The proposed study aims to assess NSIs in trainees currently attending residency programs in Obstetrics and Gynecology in all academic hospitals of Italy, with a standardized, pre-piloted, national-based survey. At this purpose, we developed the Obstetrics Needlestick Injury Questionnaire (ONSI-Q), a 40-items survey that will be completed via a web-based platform. The ONSI-Q investigates real incidence of NSIs, adopted protection practices, presence of associated risk factors, and attitudes and rate of the reported accidents among trainees during obstetric procedures (suture of perineal tear/episiotomy and cesarean section). These results will provide the opportunity to investigate an underestimated priority, in order to encourage educational practices with the aim to improve prevention and reporting strategies, and therefore increase occupational safety in this high-risk surgical specialty.