National Journal of Community Medicine (May 2018)
A Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Study of Biomedical Waste Management and Bio-safety among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Care Government Hospital in Western India
Abstract
Introduction: Inappropriate handling of biomedical waste has led to increasing incidence of hospital acquired infections. Objective: To analyze the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of biomedical waste management and bio-safety among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital in Western India. Methodology: A questionnaire based Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) study was carried out. Total 210 healthcare workers had participated, which included 68 laboratory technicians, 69 nurses and 73 resident doctors. Results: Only 35.23% (74) participants knew the waste storage time limit. Awareness about pretreatment of the waste was found only in 5.8% (4) nurses. Awareness about post exposure prophy- laxis is only 38% (81). More than 90% of the participants had posi- tive attitude towards the subject. 40% (86) participants and 14% (10) nurses were practicing segregation at point of generation. Biomedical waste bag labeling practices were followed by only 23.2% (16) nurses and 27.39% (20) doctors. Knowledge and prac- tices scores were better among technicians and doctors than nurses. Trained participants had better attitude and practice scores compared to untrained ones. Conclusion: Intensive training programs at regular intervals are essential with special focus on nurses and first year resident doc- tors.
