Prevalence of Hematuria among Emergency Department Healthcare Workers

Background: In Taiwan, emergency departments are so busy that it is not uncommon for staffs (doctors and nurses) to be deprived of their lunch breaks or breaks to go to the restroom. As a consequence, during their busy shifts some emergency department healthcare workers choose to limit their water intake and no time to micturate which are both risk factors of urinary tract infection or urolithiasis. Hematuria is a common laboratory finding due to urinary tract infection and urolithiasis. Objective: To assess the prevalence of hematuria among the emergency department healthcare workers, we conducted a retrospective study in a district hospital in Taiwan. Documented data included those of healthcare workers who worked in the emergency department, as well as other departments of the same hospital. Methods: We reviewed the three-year records of general body checkup of hospital staffs who served in the emergency room and other departments of the same hospital between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011. Statistical software SPSS statistical analysis of survey data recovery is applied; data and test results by the questionnaire analysis patterns are associated with the urinary system abnormalities to ANOVA analysis to explore the hospital group whether there is a significant sex differences, and the other to analyze and verify the correlation analysis to the Scheffe post-hoc comparison method. Results: A higher prevalence of hematuria was observed among emergency department healthcare workers when compared with their colleagues who work in other departments of the same hospital. Female workers have higher risk of urinary system abnormalities than male workers. Nurses in the urinary system abnormalities are higher than other positions category. Shift work system has a negative effect on the urinary system. Conclusion: In conclusion, hematuria is more prevalent among emergency department healthcare workers than healthcare workers working in the inpatient wards. Hematuria might well be due to urinary tract infection which in turns caused by the overwhelmingly busy nature of the emergency department duty that deprived the emergency department healthcare workers from frequent voiding and sufficient intake of fluid.