Needlestick and Sharps Injuries Among Healthcare Workers: An 8-Year Infection Control Perspective on Preventable Occupational Exposure.

BACKGROUND: Needlestick and sharps injuries (NSIs) are a major occupational hazard among healthcare workers (HCWs), yet data on preventability, recurrent events, and COVID-19 related temporal trends remain limited. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed NSI events reported between 2018 and 2025 at a tertiary-care hospital. Injury mechanisms were classified from narrative reports, and preventability was assessed using predefined criteria. Incidence per 100 person-years was calculated. Poisson and multinomial logistic regression models were used for risk and preventability analyses. RESULTS: A total of 354 NSI events were included. Median age was 25 years, and 72.6% were female. Nurses had higher incidence than physicians (IRR 1.84; 95% CI 1.28-2.64). Hollow-bore needles accounted for 83.6% of injuries, and procedural injuries were most common (48.0%). Overall, 42.4% of injuries were preventable and 48.0% partially preventable based on study-specific predefined criteria. Cleaning staff had higher odds of preventable injuries. NSI incidence declined over time, with higher rates in the pre-pandemic period compared with the post-pandemic period. Recurrent injuries occurred in 4.5%, and only 11.3% adhered to follow-up. CONCLUSION: Mechanism-based classification identified a substantial proportion of preventable NSIs, suggesting that a considerable fraction of occupational exposures may be reduced through targeted infection control interventions. These findings highlight the importance of focusing on modifiable procedural and waste-management-related factors to improve healthcare worker safety.