A Descriptive Study on Knowledge of Registered Nurses Regarding Hospital Protocols on Biomedical Waste and Spillage Management and Needle Stick Injury in a Selected Hospital

Introduction

All activities of living things on earth produce waste in some form or the other. Normally, aerobic and anaerobic process in the environment degrade such products. Hospitals and medical health centers are places to diffuse disease. Infectious situations at hospitals should be a primary concern. Hospital waste cause many things to be at risk and lost, including human life, environmental health and funds. Therefore improper handling of solid waste in the hospital may increase the air borne pathogenic bacteria, which could adversely affect the hospital environment and community at large.

Waste generated from medical activities represents a real problem of living nature and human world. Improper management of waste generated in health care facilities causes a direct health impact on the community. In a hospital, management of spillage of hazardous substances such as bodily fluids, drugs, cleaning fluids and other chemicals are very essential. It is essential, therefore, the hospital should have the right equipment and well trained staff on hand to deal with any spills immediately when they arise. Needle stick injuries are a hazard for people who work in health care set up and these injuries can occur at any time when people use, disassemble or dispose of needles and can become a potential source of infection.

Through the 1990s, between 6 lakh and 8 lakh needle stick injuries were believed to occur annually - on the order of 2,000 every day. As a result, more than 1,000 health care workers contracted serious blood borne diseases.

In this aspect, the knowledge of nurses is important to prevent the spread of pathogens and microorganism and also serious health consequences. Nurses are a part of health care team who are constantly coming in contact with biomedical waste, spillage and needle stick injuries. They can develop, implement, and evaluate a plan to reduce needle stick injuries in the institution, and evaluate needle devices with safety features. Hence it is important to know the knowledge of nurses in biomedical waste management, spillage and needle stick injury management.

Materials and Methods

The study was conducted after obtaining the ethical clearance and permission from the Chief Nursing Officer among registered staff nurses who have the clinical experience for more than a month in all the wards such as Intensive Care Units, Dialysis unit, Post operative, Medical, Surgical, Orthopaedic, Paediatric, Oncology, Obstetrical and Gynecological, Psychiatric wards and Deaddiction centre of Father Muller Medical College Hospital, Mangalore. Nursing Supervisors, Ward incharges, Night duty staffs were excluded from the study. Baseline variables and structured knowledge questionnaire used to assess the knowledge regarding hospital protocols on bio-medical waste management, needle stick injury and spillage.

Results

Descriptive and inferential statistics will be used for the data analysis.

Table 2 reveals that the mean value of the knowledge of staff nurses on biomedical waste management is 9.09±1.86, mean value of knowledge of nurses on spillage management is 7.4±1.56 and the mean value of knowledge of nurses on needle stick injury is 3.4±0.98.

Knowledge of staff nurses on bio medical waste management, spillage management and needle stick injury

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Fig. 1

Bar diagram showing the distribution of staff nurses based on the knowledge on biomedical waste management

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Figure 2

Bar diagram showing the distribution of staff nurses based on the knowledge regarding spillage management.

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Figure 3

Bar diagram showing the distribution of staff nurses based on the knowledge regarding needle stick injury.

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Discussion

The present study shows that the majority of the subjects are female (95%) and most of the subjects were completed graduation B.Sc. (59.52%) 63.80% had six months to two years of clinical experience. The study shows that 90.95% are attended educational programme, in that 80.48% attended before one to two years. The result of the present study reveals that mean percentage of the knowledge of registered staff nurses regarding hospital protocols on bio-medical waste management, needle stick injury and spillage is (78.6%) which in turn shows that they have good level of knowledge on bio-medical waste management, needle stick injury and spillage. Comparing the study done earlier in Mangalore on the knowledge and practices of health care providers on bio-medical waste management, most of the interviewers were aware of the measures for safe collection, segregation and disposal of BMW Highest percentage regarding knowledge on BMW management was seen among the nurses (61.3%) followed by doctors (46.6%), non-teaching staffs (37.7%) and lab technicians (27.9%).

Conclusion

India generates around three million tones of medical wastes every year and the amount is expected to grow at eight per cent annually. Biomedical waste management, needle stick injury and management of spillage are part of infection control and it is generated from the biological and medical sources and activities, such as the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of diseases. Common producers of biomedical waste include hospitals, health clinics, nursing homes, medical research laboratories etc. Nurses as part of health team plays a key role in managing the biomedical waste management.