Fear of occupational HIV infection from pregnant women among health care
workers in Fiji: A Qualitative perspective.
Abstract
Fear of acquiring HIV infection among healthcare workers can impede the
quality of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services.
Objectives This paper focuses on understanding
healthcare workers’ fear of acquiring HIV infection and aims to identify
the key contributing factors associated with that fear while providing
PMTCT related services to pregnant women in Fiji. Additionally, this
paper highlights the implications of this fear on providing quality
PMTCT related service to pregnant women. Design
Qualitative methodology was employed in this study.
Setting Three tertiary hospitals and associated health
centers in Fiji. Study Sample A total of 58 healthcare
providers were interviewed, including doctors (n=12), midwives (n=19),
nurses (n=14), laboratory technicians (n=5) and counsellors (n=8) were
interviewed, using in-depth interviews. Methods We
collected the data through in-depth interviews conducted in Fiji between
April-May 2013 and February-March 2014. Thematic analysis was used to
analyse the data. Results We found that fear of
occupationally acquired HIV infection was prevalent among healthcare
workers, especially among nurses and midwives. Needlestick injuries,
lack of awareness of infection control process, shortage of personal
protective equipment, and delayed presentation of pregnant women with
unknown HIV status in labour ward were identified as the main
contributory factors associated with the fear.
Conclusion Our findings would be valuable in developing
strategies to overcome the fear among healthcare workers. Simple
intervention such as standardised infection prevention and control
training would be valuable for mitigating the fear of HIV infection
among healthcare workers.