Knowledege, Attitude and Practices of Health Workers on Medical Waste Management in Iganga General Hospital, Uganda.

Abstract

Improper management of health-care wastes from health facilities poses occupational and public health risks to patients, health workers, waste handlers, haulers, and communities. In developing countries, scavenger families who make a living by recycling materials from open dump sites are at great risk especially from sharps waste. To establish knowledge, attitude and practices of health workers on medical waste management in Iganga General Hospital, Uganda. A cross sectional quantitative and qualitative study design was employed while exploring the knowledge, attitude and practices of staff on waste management in Iganga General Hospital. There were more female respondents in the study sixty four 64(61.54%). Of these, forty four 44(51.16%) were between 22 and 31 years old and only 1 (1.16%) in the age group of 57 – 61 years. The youngest respondent was 22 years and oldest 60 years old, giving a mean range of 38 years. It was also noted that the majority of the respondents fifty nine 59 (57.28%) were married. Only 2 (1.94%) of them said were cohabiting. Most of the respondents sixty one 61(59.22%) were certificate holders with only one 1(0.97%) masters graduate. The study shows that there was difference in the knowledge level about waste management according to sex of the respondents. Accordingly, many of the respondents knew what waste management is. The study also showed that the respondents had a fairly motivated attitude towards working while wearing personal protective equipments by sex. According to age, the study also shows fair practice of workers on waste classification in the facility. The study shows that respondents had generally good knowledge, a fairly keen attitude on the subject and with somewhat fair practices on medical waste management. An incinerator needs to be erected at the facility to solve the challenge of waste storage as reliance on Green label world in the future is not realistic enough.