STUDY TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE REGARDING BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT AMONG NURSING PERSONNEL WORKING IN TERTIARY CARE CENTER AT LUCKNOW, U.P.

Background: Inadequate and inappropriate knowledge of handling of healthcare waste may have serious health consequences. The best BMW management (BMWM) methods aim at avoiding generation of waste or recovering as much as waste as possible, rather than disposing. Adequate knowledge about the health hazard of hospital waste, proper technique and methods of handling the waste, and practice of safety measures is unsatisfactory between health providers. In view of the foregoing, we performed a qualitative study in a tertiary care teaching hospital in India to explore the perceptions of the nursing personnel working in the hospital regarding health care waste management. Aims and Objective: The present study was performed to assessing knowledge, attitude of nursing personnel regarding biomedical waste management. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional observational study conducted at the different indoor wards of tertiary care hospital of Lucknow. The sample for this study were sixty nursing personnel dealing with care of admitted patient and engaged to perform routine medical procedure like blood sampling, intravenous fluid administration, bed sore dressing etc. Quantitative data of subjects recorded were age of the subject, year of experience and training of BMW management. Qualitative data recorded were knowledge related to BMW management, colour of bin regarding waste disposal and practice of waste management guideline during routine medical procedure Results: Majority (75%) of subject were having working experience less than ten year and 21.7% of subject were having working experience between 10 to 20 year. Study results showed that 16.7% of subjects have taken training of BMW management before starting the job and 73.3% of subjects have not taken any training of BMW. Knowledge regarding BMW of study subjects showed that majority (77%) have average knowledge, 21.6% of subjects have good knowledge and rest 6.7% of subjects have poor knowledge of BMW management. Conclusion: The awareness and practices of the BMW management varied among nursing personnel and were not found to be satisfactory. For effective implementation of biomedical waste management practices in the hospitals continuous training program is mandatory to improve their knowledge and practice. Keywords: Bio-medical waste, Nursing personnel, knowledge, Practice