How and how much do endoscopy professionals protect themselves against infection

Abstract Purpose It is aimed to identify, the educations given to professionals working in endoscopy units against infectious risks during the endoscopic procedures and awareness of professionals for protection from these infections. Material and method After obtaining the required ethic committee permissions, 50 physicians and 34 nurses, working in the endoscopy units of three university and one training and research hospital, were included in this study. A survey with 37 questions, prepared in accordance with the literature was applied to the participating endoscopist (E) and endoscopy nurses (EN). SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 16.0 program was used for statistical evaluation of the obtained data. Findings Forty-four (52%) of the subjects were female and 40 (48%) were male, and their average age was 39 (±6.82) years. When trainings on endoscopy of E and EN were evaluated, it was found that 44% ( n  = 37) of them precise an endoscopy course on endoscopy training, %56 ( n  = 47) received no training and they learned through master/apprentice system. Furthermore, it was found that 65% ( n  = 55) of the E and EN received no training on universal precautions procedures, infection and risks endoscopic procedures and only 35% ( n  = 29) received a specific course or on-the-job training. Nevertheless, rates of wearing protective gowns and gloves were high both for E and EN; but rate of other precautions such as wearing mask, using special gloves and face shields were found to be low. It was found that the rate of "receiving an education on endoscopy" for E was significantly higher than that of EN ( p  ). The rate of reporting emergency situations such as contact with blood/body fluids or percutaneous injuries and the rate of taking universal precautions of EN who received an education, was statistically higher than that of EN who did not ( p  and p  ). Results As a result of our investigation, it was determined that the endoscopists and endoscopy nurses did not effectively apply the universal precautions against infectious risks faced during endoscopic procedures and did not receive the basic trainings. The professionals who received training were more responsive for this issue. According to our results, organizing continuous training programs through endoscopy professionals is necessary to provide the universal precautions of avoiding exposure to blood and body fluids.