Adherence to safety precautions among mental health workers at Butabika hospital.

Abstract

Introduction: The study of adherence to safety precautions among mental health workers was carried out at Butabika hospital.

Objective: The major objective of this study was to establish the adherence to safety precautions among mental health workers at Butabika hospital.

Methodology: The study was a descriptive cross sectional study. 80 respondents were recruited consecutively from Butabika hospital. Their socio-demographic characteristics were obtained using the socio-demographic questionnaire. Adherence to safety precautions was evaluated using a structured questionnaire with a likert scale.

Results: 80 mental health workers were interviewed during the study, 77.50% were female and 22.50% were male. More than half of the health workers were cohabiting and below the age of 50 years.

85% of the health workers reported that patients are too many, 75% reported that patients move up and down while on the ward, 48% reported that health workers do not effectively document about the condition of the patients and all heath workers reported that they are not given duress.

Factors associated with adherence to safety precautions among mental health workers at Butabika hospital are; high number of patients, patient‟s non adherence to medication, diagnoses of severe psychiatric illness such as; bipolar disorders, schizophrenia. Other associated factors include; inadequate knowledge and training on safety precautions, inadequate safety equipment and poor organizational policies on safety equipment.

Conclusion: Many health workers at Butabika hospital do not adhere to the safety precautions, therefore there is need to educate the health workers about adherence to safety precautions, health educate the patients about the benefit of medication and provide health workers with safety equipment.