# Workplace Injuries among Acute Care Nurses: Implications for the Healthcare System

> **NIH ALLCDC R21** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $234,750

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Workplace injuries incurred by nurses’ accounts for more than one third of the identified Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA)-reportable injuries, an incidence that is almost five times that reported for
physicians, dentists, and residents. Furthermore, workplace injuries among nurses can result in the loss of
productivity, which potentially affects the quality of care and patient outcomes. Injuries to nurses are also a
sizable financial burden for health care organizations as they struggle to fill nurse vacancies secondary to
injury and maintain an adequate number of nurses to meet the needs of the healthcare delivery team. Yet, little
is known about the underlying factors that contribute to workplace injuries among nurses and the injury-related
costs. Hospitals have unique challenges that place workers at risk for injury; challenges that are uncommon in
other workplace settings. Therefore, the specific aims of the study are 1) to determine the incidence of
occupational injuries among hospital-based acute care nurses, 2) to estimate the association between
aspects of the hospital practice environment and workplace injuries among nurses, and 3) to estimate the
associated facility costs that result from occupational injuries incurred by hospital-based acute care
nurses. Data from multiple sources will be merged to address the aims of the study including injury data on
nurses working in six large academic medical centers that are part of Emory University Healthcare in Atlanta,
GA. The OSHA-reportable injuries of interest include exposure to blood or body fluids, sprain, strain, contusion,
laceration, foreign body, dermatitis, and inflammation. The most common sources of these injuries include
sharps, patient handling, bodily motion, another human, body fluids, and assault. Unit-level monthly data on
these nurse injuries will be linked with data on the characteristics of hospital units such as unit type, the
educational attainment of nurses, aspects of the nurse practice environment, nurse staffing metrics, working
hours, and turnover, in an effort to identify the unit-level factors that might be associated with workplace
injuries among nurses. A series of univariate and multivariate regression models will be fit to identify the
specific factors associated with workplace injuries among these nurses. In addition, the associated costs of
workplace injuries will be estimated using nursing salary data and computed under different hypothetical
scenarios. This study will fill the knowledge gap and improve our understanding of workplace injuries among
hospital-based acute care nurses. The results of this study will be vitally important to hospital managers and
financial administrators in their efforts to provide a practice environment where nurses can deliver patient care
with minimal or no risk of workplace injury. This interdisciplinary team includes experts in the areas of
outcomes research, healthcare organization, work...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10932092
- **Project number:** 5R21OH012557-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** JEANNIE P. CIMIOTTI
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $234,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-30 → 2025-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10932092

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10932092, Workplace Injuries among Acute Care Nurses: Implications for the Healthcare System (5R21OH012557-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10932092. Licensed CC0.

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