| dc.description.abstract | Background: Some types of medical wastes pose risk on human health as well as contaminate the environment. Medical wastes management practices in many developing countries have given less attention by health care workers and health care managers.
Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of medical workers towards medical waste management in Gulu regional referral hospital.
Method: A descriptive cross sectional study was employed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of medical workers towards medical waste management in Gulu Regional Referral Hospital. A total of 79 medical workers from the hospital were included in this study using non probability, convenient sampling technique. A structured questionnaire and observational check list were used to collect data. Data were entered in epi-info 3.5.4 which was transferred using Stata transfer into access and analyzed using SPSS version 16.
Results: From the assessment done majority of the respondents 69.6% reported that HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and cholera as the commonest diseases transmitted by poorly managed medical waste, with 58.2% of the medical workers had never attended any continuing medical education or workshop or conference on medical waste management and only 43.0% gave a correct definition of medical waste management and only 43.0% gave a correct definition of medical waste management indicating knowledge deficits. 75.9% of the medical workers takes full responsibility on medical waste management in their units which showed good attitude, there was a fair practice on waste management with (67.1%) reported ever participated in a process of waste management. Segregation of waste was averagely practiced in the hospital. Most of the wards had waste collection containers placed outside the working areas.
Conclusion: Medical waste management is affected by knowledge, attitude and practice of medical workers. Some of the health care workers had knowledge gap and did not practice health care wastes management. Hence, providing adequate numbers of waste bins, regular training and supervision on medical waste management are recommended to improve the problems of poor management of medical wastes. | en_US |
