THE AWARENESS IN BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT OF NURSING STAFF AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF MANGALORE, SOUTH INDIA

Abstract

Introduction:In country like India, where there is big and complex health care system, mixed economy, private and Government hospitals working together; while providing services generate waste. It is estimated that the quantity of waste generated from hospitals in our country ranges between 0.5 and 2.0 kg/bed/day and annually about 0.33 million tons of waste are generated in IndiaAim and objectives:To study the awareness of nursing staff about the biomedical waste segregation in a tertiary care centerMaterial and methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among the nurses of Justice K.S.Hegde Hospital, Derlakatte. Total of 123 nurses who were present at the time were the study subjects. The pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire which was validated by face validation method was distributed.Results:The total of 96.66% of nurses knew the segregation of biomedical waste was the need of the hour. 90% of them felt they have adequate knowledge about segregation. 96% knew the color coding of sharps and human anatomical waste. But 99% knew the colour coding of blood, blood products and microbiological waste. 67% knew the colour coding of pharmacological waste and double glove disposal. Only 89.3% were confident that they followed the correct methods of segregation.