Abstract:

Objective: This study was conducted to find out the knowledge and experience of student nurses on occupational health and occupational safety Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on nursing students studying in the Health Sciences Faculty of a University between 26 May and 16 June 2017. The universe of the study consisted of all students studying in the department of nursing (N=446), while the sample consisted of 332 student nurses determined according to “Raosoft” sample size calculation program. The data were collected through face to face interview technique with “Questionnaire Form” developed by the researchers. Results: It was found that 76.5% of the student nurses in the study were trained about occupational health and safety before they went out to practice areas and 85.5% were vaccinated before they went out to clinical areas. 43.7% of the student nurses stated that they had occupational accident, 31% of these stated that they were injured with a sharp object and 67.6% stated that they did not report the accident. A statistically significant association was found between student nurses’ ages, their year of study and their state of experiencing occupational accident (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was found that almost half of the student nurses in the study underwent occupational accident, most of the reasons for occupational accidents was sharp object injury and most of the students who had occupational accident did not report these.

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