Objective  To investigate the occupational blood-borne exposure and protection awareness of professionals in the operating room of a tertiary hospital.

  Methods  The medical staff in the operating room of a large-scale tertiary hospital in Nanjing were surveyed with questionnaires(medical staff) or on-site interview(cleaners) on occupational blood-borne exposure and protection awareness.

  Results  Among 295 surveyed staff in operating room, 139(47.12%) had blood-borne exposures in the past year, of whom 105(52.88%) were injured by sharps, 66(22.37%) were exposed to skin and/or mucous membranes, and 32 (10.85%) had both sharp injury and skin and/or mucous membrane exposure. The post-exposure reporting rate was 12.23%(17/139). The major reasons for not reporting were self-conscious unnecessity(62 cases, 50.82%) and not-knowing the reporting procedure(28 cases, 22.95%). Both the nurses in operating room and the cleaners had the highest incidence of sharp injury, while the nurses in the post-anesthesia monitoring and treatment room had the lowest incidence(P < 0.05). Among those who did not understand the reporting process, the proportion of cleaners was the highest, while that of nurses in operating room was the lowest, and the difference was statistically significant(P < 0.05). The most of exposed personnel thought that the main reasons for blood-borne exposure were unpredictable and due to the fast-paced task. The differences of the protection-related training and knowing the post-exposure treatment process among these personnel with different job-types were statistically significant(P < 0.05). There was a significant negative correlation between the proportion of awareness rate of post-exposure treatment processes (or proportion of protection-related training) and the incidence of sharp injuries(or the occurence of skin and/or mucosal exposure) in different job-types(r=-0.827——0.529, P < 0.01).

  Conclusions  The overall incidence of blood-borne exposure of medical staff in the operating room of the tertiary hospital was relatively high, and the reporting rate was low. The cognitive ability of cleaners on occupational protection was lower than the others. The hospital needs to establish a formal and effective hierarchical training system of occupational protection for medical staff with different job-types, so as to comprehensively improve the occupational protection skills.