Knowledge and practices on biomedical waste management among healthcare workers at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Sri Lanka

Abstract

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Objectives: This study was conducted to describe knowledge and practices on bio medical waste (BMW) management among five categories o f health care workers involved in BMW management at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Sri Lanka. M ethods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted With an observation checklist and a semi-structured questionnaire that collected data from consented participants. 30 randomly selected wards/labs/sections in the selected hospital and a total of 325 health care workers were assessed from August-November 2012. The study sample comprised 81 doctors, 115 nurses, 22 medical laboratory technologists, 21 attendants and 86 of sanitation staff. SPSS for windows was used for statistical analysis. Results: A statistically significant difference was observed among die five job categories regarding the knowledge (p<0.001) & practices (p<0.001) on BMW management. Doctors, nurses, medical laboratory technologists, attendants and sanitation staff had mean scores o f 58.7, 66.9, 65.1, 78.2, 68.9 respectively on knowledge and mean scores o f 62.0, 68.5, 65.7, 77.0 and 76.2 respectively on practices out of a total score of 100. A statistically significant relationship was observed between knowledge and practices (p<0.01) and attendance of training programmes with knowledge (p< 0.001) & practices (p< 0.01) on BMW management. Deficiencies in facilities for BMW management were also Observed. Conclusions: A wide variation o f knowledge and practices on BMW management was observed among the five job categories. A positive relationship was seen between knowledge on BMW management on the correct practices. Lack o f facilities was seen as a cause for unsatisfactory practices.