Abstract
Biological infectious hazards are the
main factors which nursing staff deal with. It is fundamental rule, nurses to
apply the guidelines of occupational exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms.
The aim of this review was to examine the current literature on the degree of
nurses’ compliance to the guidelines of occupational according to exposure to
pathogenic micro-organisms. A review of literature was conducted on the Medline
/ PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases from 2000 to 2018. The
keywords used in the bibliography search were, health care professionals,
nurses’ attitudes, occupational exposure, and safety guidelines. The inclusion
criteria were: a) studies that were directly related to the topic, and b)
studies in English and Greek language, published in peer-reviewed journals. The
search strategy revealed 1287 studies, 1260 excluded. Finally 27 studies were
included. Nurses' compliance to the guidelines of occupational exposure to
pathogenic microorganisms is described as unsatisfactory, and an emergency
situation has been shown to be the major obstacle to follow the guidelines. It
is necessary to understand the factors which contribute to nurse’s
non-compliance. The results show that there is a need to propose measures that
will positively affect the nurses’ performance.
Keywords: Health care professionals; Nurses’ attitudes; Occupational
exposure; Safety guidelines.