BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT AWARENESS AND PRACTICE AMONG HEALTH CARE PERSONNEL

*Dr. Ayesha Begum, Dr. Sridevi and Dr. G. Jyothi Lakshmi

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Biomedical waste is a hazard to people handling them, the society and the environment. Hence, Government of India has laid the biomedical waste management rules & guidelines. Hospitals are a major source of biomedical waste. Good awareness and proper practice of these rules & guidelines among health care personnel can prevent the hazards of biomedical waste. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the awareness & level of practice of biomedical waste management among them. Method: The awareness and practice among four groups of health care personnel that is doctors, nurses, lab-technicians and cleaning staff of a tertiary care hospital, was assessed using a questionnaire. Result: Of the total 154 responses, 71 were doctors, 27 nurses, 38 lab-technicians & 18 cleaning staff. 80.6% of the respondents were aware of biomedical waste management whereas 19.4% were unaware. 98.6% of the doctors, 77.8% of the nurses and 60.5% of the lab-technicians were aware. There was no awareness among cleaning staff. The practice of biomedical waste management was good among 35.5%, average among 33.1% & bad among 31.5% of all the respondents. Only 40.8% of doctors, 55.6% of nurses & 26.3% of the lab technicians practiced it well. Practice was bad among majority of the cleaning staff. Conclusion: Majority of health care personnel are aware of biomedical waste management but are not practicing it well. This holds good with all categories of health care personnel. Reasons for bad practice despite being aware have to be found out and appropriate actions must be taken to attain a good level of practice among health care personnel.

Keywords: Biomedical waste, Awareness, Practice, Health care personnel.