Perception, Awareness and Practices of Bio Medical Waste Management in a Teaching Hospital

ABSTRACT

The study aims to determine knowledge regarding biomedical waste management policy, attitude & practice of BMWmanagement, prevalence of needle-stick injury and appropriate response to needle stick injury among the doctors working atAdesh Medical College and Hospital, India. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire with closed-endedquestions. The questionnaire was distributed to all doctors working in the college. The resulting answers were graded and thepercentages for each question was obtained and analyzed. The results showed that the level of knowledge and awareness ofbiomedical waste generation, associated hazards, legislations and management practices among health care personnel is good.However, it was surprising that this is not getting translated to action, especially when their personal well-being is concerned. Itwas found that none of respondents had an excellent level of knowledge on responding appropriately to needle stick injury andonly 17.9% respondents had good knowledge about needle stick injury and its management while 82.1% respondents had anaverage knowledge. It may be concluded that the knowledge about BMW among doctors is good but there are poor levels ofknowledge and awareness about needle stick injury and its management. Regular monitoring and training are required at alllevels.