A study on knowledge, attitude and practice of biomedical waste management among health care workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Puducherry

Abstract

Introduction: Health care workers (HCWs) are constantly associated with generation, segregation and disposal of biomedical wastes (BMW). Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of BMW management among HCWs are the three determinants used to evaluate the effective functioning of BMW management system of the Institution. Aims: This study aims to detect the degree of knowledge, attitude and practice of BMW management among HCWs in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: This study included 150 HCWs from five groups (postgraduates, interns, nurses, technicians and sanitary staffs), each group comprising of 30 individuals. They were instructed to tick their response in the questionnaire containing 30 questions (10 questions about each parameter) and were graded as good, average and poor based on individual score. Results: Order of decreasing knowledge and practice seen among the five groups was postgraduates followed by laboratory technicians, interns, nurses and sanitary staffs. Decreasing order of attitude was postgraduates, interns and laboratory technicians with same score, followed by nurses and sanitary staffs. In our study, 81.33%, 86.7% and 69.33% of participants had above average KAP values respectively. Conclusion: Postgraduates and interns had better understanding of BMW management than other groups. Laboratory technicians were better than nurses and sanitary staffs. Sanitary workers were highly ignorant regarding BMW management. So a continuing medical education program on BMW management should be conducted on yearly basis to train and update newly appointed as well as existing HCWs. Keywords: Attitude, Biomedical waste, Knowledge, Practice, Questionnaire.