The study assessed the awareness and prevention of occupational hazards among health care worker in Ring Road State Hospital Ibadan Oyo State. This study adopted the descriptive cross sectional research design which involves collecting, analyzing, and interpretation of the quantitative data in the study .Population for the data was 318 health workers of Ring road selected from various categories of health workers in the facility, 180 health workers were recruited through probability sampling technique to fully participate in the study. A validated questionnaire was developed and used for gathering information on the level of awareness of and prevention of occupational hazards among health workers. The research question and hypotheses were subjected to descriptive and inferential analysis. The results showed that over half of the respondents were registered nurse/midwives, and females with other cadre less than half, married (61.7 %) with 5 years median work experience (70.3 %). Most respondents (90.1 %) were aware of hazards among health workers, identified recapping used needles as a risky practice (70%) and recognized that effective hand washing prior to, and after every clinical procedure in preventing cross infection (100%). Study revealed no significant relationship between the cadre of health workers and their level of awareness of occupational hazards (x² = 29.539, df = 12, p = .147). Whereas there a significant relationship between awareness and prevention of occupational hazards among health workers (x² = 32.454, df = 5, p = .009). In conclusion, the high level of awareness demonstrated by respondents was at variance with practice. It was recommended among others that adequate provision of appropriate safety kits, their timely replacement when worn out and updated job aids should be made available to all cadres of staff based on their job schedule.

Keywords: Awareness, Prevention, Health Care Workers, Occupational hazards,

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