Knowledge And Practice Of Healthcare Personnel Towards Biomedical Wastes Management At Nemba District Hospital, Rwanda

Abstract

Hazardous organic and inorganic wastes are categorized as healthcare wastes. A significant health risk to patients, healthcare professionals, and anyone else in contact with it is posed by roughly 10–25% of the overall total of waste in healthcare (HCW) produced by medical establishments across the globe. In developing nations like Rwanda, Medical facilities need to improve their waste management procedures since they are currently insufficient. Thus, this study's objective was to assess the knowledge and practice of healthcare personnel towards biomedical waste management as well as to identify the association between level of knowledge and practice of healthcare personnel towards biomedical waste management at Nemba District Hospital and to explore barriers and opportunities of biomedical waste management among health care personnel. As the significance of the study, the results could be useful for the development of operational guidelines for the management of healthcare waste in health facilities nationwide, and in Gakenke District particularly and the researcher benefited from this study by improving the knowledge and skills about the healthcare waste management. A cross-sectional study was conducted with both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample size used was 200 and was calculated by using Yamane formula for sample size determination for defined small population (target population less than 2000) with confidence of 95% and margin error of 5%(Yamane, 1967). A simple random procedure was used to choose 200 responses from 400 targeted population including nurses, social workers, and cleaners. Data were collected by using structured questionnaire, Participant Observation and In-depth interviews involved one-on-one conversations between the researcher and the participant. Chi-Square test was used to determine the association between the variables and level of significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. The results of the study found that only 71 (35.5%) demonstrated a good practice towards bio-medical waste management. Age group and knowledge were significantly associated with good practice of bio-medical waste management among healthcare personnel. As conclusion, the level of in both knowledge and practice towards bio-medical waste management among healthcare personnel was low. The researcher recommends continuing education and training programmes to improve the knowledge and practices towards bio-medical waste management among healthcare personnel.

Keywords: Biomedical waste management, Healthcare personnel, Hazardous waste, Healthcare waste handling, Knowledge and practice, Waste treatment methods.