A STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTICES REGARDING BIOMEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT AMONG THE HEALTH CARE WORKERS AT A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL OF WESTERN UTTAR PRADESH

Background: The hazardous impact of biomedical waste on the community and environment is enhanced manifold if it is not managed effectively. Appropriate knowledge and awareness amongst the health care workers about the biomedical waste management, will help in minimizing health care associated infections. Purpose: There are no such studies in this part of the country to identify the gaps / lacunae in knowledge, attitude & practices amongst health care workers, so that timely corrective measures could be instituted in the form of educational interventions. Material & Methods: This Questionnaire based descriptive study was undertaken at a tertiary care teaching hospital of western Uttar Pradesh in March 2018 after obtaining clearance from Institutional ethics committee. A total of 85 subjects (30 Doctors, 30 Nurses, 25 Laboratory technicians) were administered pre structured pre-validated anonymous questionnaire. Mean scores of the Knowledge, Attitudes and practices of the three groups were compared by Anova test and the comparison between any two study groups done using unpaired t test and the significance level was set to 0.05. Results: While comparing Knowledge, attitude and practices between Doctors & Nurses, though doctors scored higher in all 3 sections but the difference was statistically significant only in the Knowledge and Practice levels. While comparing KAP scores between Nurses & Lab.technicians, though nurses scored higher but a statistically significant difference was seen in the attitude levels only.There was a statistically significant difference in the scores of Doctors, Nurses & Lab. Technicians in all the three sections Conclusion: Such studies help in detecting the gaps & lacunae in knowledge, attitude & practices amongst different categories of health care providers which could be addressed through targeted educational interventions at regular intervals. This would help in reducing the incidence of health hazards due to improper BMW management. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Doctors, Nurses, Laboratory technicians, Questionnaire, Biomedical waste management.