What Do Nurses Working in Primary Health Care Services Know About Medical Waste Management?

Abstract

With the increase in population, the need for health services also uprises the production of medical waste. Nurses have important responsibilities in the management of medical waste with great risks for human and environmental health. There search was conducted as a descriptive study in order to evaluate the know ledge level of nurses working in primary health care units about medical waste. The research was conducted with nurses (N=80) working in primary health care units in a province in Turkey/Central Anatolia Region, between January 5 and February 5, 2020, actively working, not on leave/report and volunteering to participate in there search (n=75). The data of the study were collected with the “Medical Waste Information Level Determination Form”. The form consisted of three parts, including sociodemographic characteristics, separation of waste types, and knowledge level of medical waste use, and 49 questions. In the results of the study, the mean score of nurses' knowledge of sorting waste types was 9.9±2.7 (min:3, max:15 points), while the mean of medical waste use knowledge score was 19.2±2.7 (min:10, max:23 points). In order to meet the knowledge need of nurses, it should be ensured that the level of knowledge is determined, the practices in the field are supervised and developed, and in-service trainings should be provided within this scope.