Knowledge, attitude, and practices about biomedical waste management among healthcare personnel: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background:The waste produced in the course of healthcare activities carries a higher potential for infection and injury than any other type of waste. Inadequate and inappropriate knowledge of handling of healthcare waste may have serious health consequences and a significant impact on the environment as well.Objective:The objective was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices of doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, and sanitary staff regarding biomedical waste management.Materials and Methods:This was a cross-sectional study.Setting:The study was conducted among hospitals (bed capacity >100) of Allahabad city.Participants:Medical personnel included were doctors (75), nurses (60), laboratory technicians (78), and sanitary staff (70).Results:Doctors, nurses, and laboratory technicians have better knowledge than sanitary staff regarding biomedical waste management. Knowledge regarding the color coding and waste segregation at source was found to be better among nurses and laboratory staff as compared to doctors. Regarding practices related to biomedical waste management, sanitary staff were ignorant on all the counts. However, injury reporting was low across all the groups of health professionals.Conclusion:The importance of training regarding biomedical waste management needs emphasis; lack of proper and complete knowledge about biomedical waste management impacts practices of appropriate waste disposal.

Knowledge, attitude and practices of biomedical waste management among health care personnel in selected primary health care centres in Lucknow

“…As similar to study conducted by Mathur et al; 6 the present study revealed that more than 90% of medical officers had knowledge about biomedical waste management guidelines and segregation with lesser knowledge among staff nurses (55.0%) and paramedical staff (62.5%) and least awareness among class IV workers. Similar findings were also reported in other studies.…”

Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices Regarding Biomedical Waste Management Among Undergraduate Dental Students

“…This is much higher than what was About 86% of students in our study knew about the categories of dental waste materials generated in the clinics, which is similar to the study by reported by Sanjeev et al [8] (96.6%), Chudasama et al [10] (96.5%), Manchanda et al [11] (90%), and Mathur et al [9] (81.3%). However, in the study by Bansal et al [7], only 76% of the dentists segregated different wastes according to the laws of BMW management.…”

“…This shows that our study participants have excellent knowledge and practices regarding discarding needles. This was much higher than the results observed by Mathur et al [9], Bansal et al [7], and Chudasama et al [10] where only around 65.3%, 58%, and 63.1% used to dispose sharps in puncture-proof containers. Whereas only 41.7% and 26.4% of study participants disposed needles in puncture proof containers according to the study by Manchanda et al [11] and Charania and Ingle [5], respectively.…”

Impact of educational intervention on knowledge and attitude of bio-medical waste management among health care personnel working in a tertiary care hospital of Bengaluru city, Karnataka, India

“…The waste produced in the course of healthcare activities carries a higher potential for infection and injury than any other type of waste. 1 Bio-medical waste (BMW) is defined as "any waste which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biologicals".…”