Accidents at work and its impact on a hospital in northern Portugal

Abstract

In order to describe the accidents at work in a hospital in northern Portugal and analyze its main impact in the period 2008 to 2010, we conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study. The information was obtained using the registration notification of accidents at work for 387 workers. The higher prevalence of accidents fell in superior health technician (56.1%) in workers of the female gender (81.9%) in the age group 30-39 years (37.2%), with higher education to the 12th years (55.8%), working in shifts (72.4%) and inpatient services (35.9%). The main cause was the needle stick (45.7%) and the lesion was mainly in the hands (37.5%). The wounds (32.6%) were the most frequent type of injury, followed by sprains and strains (23%). Resulted in absence from work 27.4%, with the sprains and strains the main reason. Preventive strategies should be adopted aiming at the promotion of health of health professionals.