Assessment of Biosafety practices in selected Public Hospital laboratories, East, South-West, and West Shoa Zones of Oromia Region, Ethiopia
Creators: name: Tefera, Derese
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2014

description: Background: Persons working in clinical diagnostic laboratories are exposed to many risks. The most hazardous agent in the laboratory is a microorganism that is frequently associated with laboratory infections and can be transmitted in variety of routes, especially by aerosols. Moreover, hospital and diagnostic laboratories are a challenging environment for the surrounding community. The more the laboratorians become aware of and adhere to recommended, science-based safety precautions, the lower the risk for laboratory acquired infections. The behavior patterns and attitude of individuals towards safety programs influence their involvement in laboratory accidents that put themselves and fellow workers at risk. Assessing laboratory biosafety practices will help the laboratories to identify factors that hindered laboratory personnel from practicing good laboratory biosafety measures and to determine the existing situation of the assessed laboratories so that laboratory managers can plan towards implementation of biosafety practices and hence safe working laboratory area will be created. Objective:The aim of this study was to assess biosafety practices among laboratory personnel working in selected public hospitals in the East, West and S/West Shoa zones of Oromia region. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2013 and May 2014.The study was conducted among 45 studied laboratory personnel working in 5 selected public hospital laboratories located in East, West and S/West Shoa Adama, Bishoftu, Tulubolo, Ambo and St. Luke hospital laboratory). Datawas collected between April and May 2014 using structured questionnaire. The analysis was done by SPSS version16 statistical software using one-way ANOVA. P-values less than 0.05 wereconsidered as statistically significant. Result:Out 0f 45 participantsgreater than 37 (84%) of studied personnel were within the age range of 18-44 years. Of which the majority 23(64%) of the studied laboratory personnels' age were aggregated within the age distribution category of 25-34. Male to female ratio of the studied participants were 3:1 with a count of male participant 34 (75.6%), and females accounted 11 (24.4%). Regarding the level of education, 23 (51.1%) of them had finished undergraduate study on medical laboratory sciences (Bachelor of sciences) and the rest 21(46.7%) were diploma holders in laboratory science. The duration of work experience in laboratory service of the studied laboratory showed that greater than 33(75%) of the group had a work experience of greater than 5years. This survey shown that the grand mean of the studied laboratory personnel for the overall biosafety practices was found to be 36.44±7.635 with a mean score range of 52%- 80%. Laboratory personnel B exceptionally scored the highest mean score of all 42.7(80%) and fall in upper moderate level which is close to high level. The mean score for laboratory D and E had shown similar results which are a mean value of38.6 (70%)and they are closed to be labeled as moderate. The rest two laboratories (A and C) found to be low level with laboratory A scored the least mean value of all 29.7 (50%), while laboratory C scored a mean value of 34.5. Conclusion: The overall biosafety practice of the studied hospital laboratories average score is 36.44±7.63 from a total score value of 55. The percent range forall studied labs is 52%-80%. Laboratory B exceptionally scored the highest mean of all with a score of 80% as a result it is in the upper moderate level category.