Assessment of Healthcare Waste Management Practices Employed by Health Workers in Health Facilities in Bushenyi District Western Uganda

Abstract

Abstract. Globally healthcare waste has been identified as a major problem that has the potential of impacting negatively on both human health and environment for decades. The study was conducted to assess healthcare waste management practices employed by health workers in health facilities in Bushenyi District western Uganda. The study design adapted was a descriptive and cross sectional type and both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Twelve out of a total of 38 health facilities present in the district were selected. A range of methods employed for the collection of data included questionnaire survey which targeted 340 stratified randomly selected healthcare workers, formal interviews as well as field observations. The results depicts that majority of the respondents 263 (77.4%) agreed that healthcare waste was been segregated at their facilities while 51 (15%) denied the existence of segregation. However observations revealed that Segregation was applied only to sharps which was collected in special sharp boxes Furthermore 47 (13.8%) of the respondents do not use protective equipment when handling healthcare waste while majority of the respondents 293 (86.2%) have agreed to usage of protective equipment. The use of hands was identified as the most common mode of transportation as indicated 214 (62.9%) of the respondents while open pit burning was identified as the commonest method of waste disposal. Based on the study findings it was revealed that healthcare waste was improperly managed and majority of healthcare workers were not in compliance with Ugandans health workers guide.

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards bio-medical waste management among healthcare workers: a northern Saudi study

“…However, there are no specific requirements for separate and compulsory BMW management and infection control training to apply for health sector jobs and contract renewal. Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) towards BMW among the HCWs are essential in planning the training program for them towards BMW management to the extent they need ( Al Balushi et al, 2018 ; Reddy & Al Shammari, 2017 ; Olaifa, Govender & Ross, 2018 ) so that they will dispose of the BMW according to the regulation implemented in their hospitals; this will eventually decrease the health hazards that will arise from BMW ( Alqahtani et al, 2019 ; Aliyu et al, 2017 ). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is limited data available in northern Saudi Arabia on this topic.…”

Evaluation of Sanitation Management at Bassajabalaba Secondary School in Bushenyi District Ishaka Municipality.

“…2.4 billion people still don't have basic sanitation facilities [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Among the pre-urban population of the developing countries, only about 65% have house connections and an additional 20% have access to public taps, about half of these are intermittent [17][18][19][20]. Of the rural population only about 60% have access to safe water and few of these have house connections.…”

“…It protects water sources, trains community members in the maintenance of the same, and offers demonstration units to some institutions like schools. The commonest outpatient department illnesses in Ishaka municipality are malaria, cardiovascular illnesses, diarrhea, malnutrition, skin diseases, eye infections, anemia, trauma & AIDS-related diseases [19,20]. These greatly contribute to the poor health situation manifested by the high infant mortality of 94 out of 1000.…”