Experiences in Dealing with Medical Waste:A Meta-synthesis

Abstract

Background: Health care staff may experience in dealing with medical waste in their health care activities. The experiences are various and challenging, ranging from producing the waste to disposing of it. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze and synthesize the findings of existing qualitative researches related to experiences of health care staff in dealing with medical waste. Methods: This meta-synthesis collected recent research published from 2013 up to 2019. The articles were searched using online databases: Proquest, EBSCO, CINAHL, Springer, and Pubmed. The keywords using in the search were medical waste, hospital waste, health care waste, healthcare professionals, healthcare workers, and qualitative. There were 381 articles found from the search. Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research was used to assess the articles. Six articles were finally included and synthesized using the meta-ethnographic approach. Results: Three themes emerged from the study: consequence of health care, ways to handle medical waste, and obstacles in managing medical waste. Conclusion: Medical waste is inevitable and collaboration, as well as cooperation among health care staff and stakeholders is needed to manage medical waste properly.

Expectations and Experiences of Patients Recently Initiated to Centre-Based Dialysis Treatment

“…Transportation and preparation were also factors in the experience of time lost or wasted. Together with fatigue, most participants deemed days with dialysis as wasted which is similar to findings in several other studies [19,20]. The impact of this disruption varied, as those with a previously active lifestyle seemed less satisfied with their current life situation, finding dialysis incompatible with an active lifestyle.…”

Patient engagement during the transition from nondialysis‐dependent chronic kidney disease to dialysis: A meta‐ethnography

“…The current review identified psychosocial adjustment as one of the central themes during the transition to dialysis, which has also been identified as an important theme in previous reviews on the experiences of patients living with maintenance dialysis. 26,27 However, the emphasis on psychosocial adjustment in the present context pertains to the acceptance of the necessity for dialysis. It entails a process where patients may transition from a state of 'rejection' to 'acceptance' and from 'disengagement' to 'engagement'.…”

“…23 Several factors contribute to patient engagement during the transition period, including patient-related factors (e.g., education level, clinical status, motivation), health professional-related factors (e.g., attitude toward patient engagement, communication), organization-related factors (e.g., organizational climate and available resources), and lay community-related factors (e.g., family and peer networks). 24,25 Previous reviews of patients with CKD 5 have mainly explored the experiences of patients who lived with maintenance dialysis, 26,27 but few reviews have specifically focused on the experiences of patients undergoing the transition from a nondialysis-dependent state to a dialysis-dependent state. Although some reviews have examined patients' experiences of engaging in decision-making regarding dialysis initiation and modality selection, we argue that patient engagement during a transition period includes a wider range of domains in addition to decision-making.…”