Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of medical waste management among health care worker at DHQ Hospital Nankana Sahib

Abstract

Background: In order to minimize the incidence of diseases caused by improper waste management, investigating the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice among the health care providers in District Headquarter Hospital Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, was necessary.  Improper medical waste management is one of the most injurious challenges causing a number of health problems for staff working and dealing with medical waste in hospitals.

Objective: This paper aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice among the health care providers working at District Headquarter Hospital Nankana Sahib about medical waste management.

Methodology: The study was conducted at DHQ Hospital Nankana Sahib, and the sample was selected through simple random sampling. A total of 145 HCWs were estimated using % of high Knowledgeable as 89.5% among health care workers; 5% margins of errors were used, and 95% confidence level was taken by using WHO software.

Results: It was found that the mean total knowledge score was 9.67 ± 1.17 (3-11), the mean total attitude score was 6.23 ± 2.12 (0 – 9), and the mean total practice score was 11.25 ± 2.34 (8- 20). There were 37(25.5%) participants who had low and 108(74.5%) participants who had high knowledge. There were 65(44.8%) participants who had negative, and 80(55.2%) participants had positive attitudes. There were 68(46.9%) participants who had poor and 77(53.1%) participants who had good practices. The low knowledge was associated with lower age groups (91.9% of subjects aged 26-40 years old and 8.1% of subjects of 41-60 years old cases had low knowledge).  Low knowledge was also associated with qualifications, and negative attitude also associated with members belonging to lower age group.

Conclusion:  In the current study, it was concluded that health care personnel working at District Nankana Sahib hospital have good knowledge, attitude, and practice in medical waste management. However, workers belonging to lower age groups and qualifications have less knowledge as compared to the health care personnel having good qualifications (MBBS or BS nursing) with more age. A significant positive correlation between knowledge and attitude scores with years of practice was also found.