In the year 2015 there were 5 cases of needlestick injuries at the Zamboanga City Medical Center, this number increased to 25 for the year 2016, and a further increase to 35 in 2017. These numbers only account for the cases which have been reported to the Infection Prevention and Control Committee, the actual incidence of needlestick injuries could be far higher. This is an analytical, cross sectional study designed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices of healthcare workers on needlestick injuries, as well as to determine the incidence of needlestick injuries. This study also aims to determine the relationship between the incidence of needlestick injuries and the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the healthcare workers. One hundred seventy one respondents were recruited using stratified convenience sampling consisting of doctors, nurses, medical technologists, and midwives. A self-administered questionnaire with three categories (Knowledge, Attitude, Practices) was prepared and pretested for validation. Data from the survey was encoded and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Stata 13.1. Of the respondents, 21% were doctors, 61% were nurses, 7% were medical technologists, and 11% consist of midwives. Results revealed that overall the healthcare workers had good knowledge on needlestick injuries with a mean score of 7.29. They also had good attitude and practices with mean scores of 39.76 and 24.83 respectively. The total needlestick injuries sustained for the year 2017-2018 was 31 with only 7 being reported to the Infection Prevention and Control Committee, and when calculated with the total number of respondents, results to 0.18 needlestick injuries per healthcare worker. Predictive analysis showed a positive relation between incidence and knowledge of needlestick injuries but failed to show any relation with attitude and practices. It is concluded that although the healthcare workers showed good knowledge, attitude, and practices, the incidence of needlestick injuries is still high.

Keyword: Knowledge, attitude, practices, and incidence of needlestick inuries Healthcare workers