An intervention significantly improve medical waste handling and management: A consequence of raising knowledge and practical skills of health care workers

Authors

  • Gihan Hosny University of Alexandria
  • Shimaa Samir University of Alexandria
  • Rania El-Sharkawy University of Alexandria

Keywords:

Medical waste handling, medical waste, safety climate, safety performance

Abstract

Objective: Health-care waste has not attended much attention in developing countries. Staff is involved in cleaning and collect waste may often be at greater risk due to their less education and training. The current intervention study was conducted to improve knowledge and practice skills for medical waste handlers in some selected hospitals of Alexandria, Egypt.

Methods: An intervention study was conducted on medical waste handlers from some selected hospitals who accepted to participate in the study in the period of May 2015 to June 2016. A predesigned questionnaire was developed to measure knowledge, skills, and practice on medical waste management pre- and post-intervention.

Results: Analysis of pre-intervention data revealed that 9.6%, 80.8%, and 9.6% of participants had high, moderate, and low knowledge levels, respectively. Whereas post-intervention, data revealed that 97.3%, 2.2%, and 0.5% of workers had high, moderate, and low knowledge levels, respectively. A significant increase in knowledge after the intervention was detected among all knowledge items except in four items which were related to the necessity to segregate medical waste, knowledge of color coding system for segregation, disposal of general waste in black bags and disposal of infectious waste in red bags. Regarding practice of waste handlers, 80% were in poor practice category pre-training and changed to 0.8% post-training; 1.1% were in good practice category and increased to 92.1% post-training.

Conclusion: The current findings emphasize the role of educative skill-raising training in enhancing knowledge and practice skills of medical waste handlers.

Author Biographies

Gihan Hosny, University of Alexandria

Professor of public Health, molecular carcinogenesis & Occupational Medicine, Environmental Health Division, Department of Environmental Studies, Institute of Graduate Studies & Research, IGSR

Shimaa Samir, University of Alexandria

Environmental Health Division, Department of Environmental Studies, Institute of Graduate Studies & Research, IGSR

Rania El-Sharkawy, University of Alexandria

Medical Reserch Institute,

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Published

2018-05-23

How to Cite

Hosny, G., Samir, S., & El-Sharkawy, R. (2018). An intervention significantly improve medical waste handling and management: A consequence of raising knowledge and practical skills of health care workers. International Journal of Health Sciences, 12(4). Retrieved from https://pub.qu.edu.sa/index.php/journal/article/view/2056

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 4 (2018): Jul-Aug

Section

Original Paper

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