Abstract: Use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety medical devices is mandated for
healthcare workers to reduce the risk of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis
B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) from exposure to patients’ blood. Research has
shown that a strong safety climate may promote increased use of PPE. Therefore, the objective of
this study was to examine the association between safety climate and use of PPE among homecare /
hospice nurses in North Carolina. To this end, a mail survey was conducted in 2006. The response
rate, adjusted on the assumption that the proportion of eligible nurses from among those who did
not return the questionnaire or could not be contacted was similar to the proportion among those
who did return the questionnaire, was 69% (n=833 eligibles). The percentage of nurses who used
the specified PPE was two to three times greater among nurses who had a strong safety climate.
Safety climate was only weakly associated with using safety devices. These results suggest that improving
safety climate may be a powerful tool for increasing use of PPE.