Assessment of Health Care Workers’ Knowledge Attitudes and Practices of Effective Management of Biomedical Waste in Dodoma City Tanzania

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue XII, December 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705

Assessment of Health Care Workers’ Knowledge Attitudes and Practices of Effective Management of Biomedical Waste in Dodoma City Tanzania

 Edward Augustine Magwe
Ruaha Catholic University (RUCU)

ABSTRACT:- Background: Biomedical waste mismanagement has been and continues to be a hazardous health risk to health personnel and the general public. This study endeavoured to identify and asses knowledge, attitudes and practices effect biomedical waste management with particular focus on those handling biomedical wastes.
Methods: The study used cross-sectional research design. The study was conducted in hospitals, health centres and dispensaries in Dodoma City, Tanzania. The population of the study consisted of all health staff of health facilities in Dodoma City, Tanzania. A total of 142 health care workers participated in the study. Structured questionnaire was used to collect Quantitative data and analysed using descriptive statistical techniques guided by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk,NY).
Results: The findings indicated that 96.5% of health care workers were aware that improper management of biomedical wastes lead to various health hazards. 97.9% of the participants indicated that mismanagement of biomedical wastes resulted in environmental problems. 73.2% of the participants stated that dumping of biomedical waste directly into garbage bins for removal and direct incineration were mostly used as methods of biomedical wastes disposal. The result revealed that a significant proportion of staff (80.3%) had not received adequate training related to biomedical waste management.
Conclusion: Health care workers in Dodoma city demonstrated good knowledge of the impact of improper management of health care waste had positive attitude and mindsets towards effective management of health care waste and had poor practice of biomedical waste in Dodoma City in Tanzania.
Recommendation: In Tanzania there is a need to build a comprehensive system that addresses and defines clearly the responsibilities, and resource allocation criteria for handling and disposing Biomedical wastes.
Keyword: Assessment, health care workers, knowledge, attitude, practice, effective management, Biomedical waste

I. Introduction

A. Background to the Study

Medical waste management has become one of the major problems facing health care facilities worldwide. The problem is aggravated by the lack of or inadequate knowledge, staff attitudes, practices and regulated waste management services. Health care workers, particularly the waste handlers are mostly involved in waste management services need mitigation against potential risks (Deresset al., 2019).
Manzoor and Sharma (2019) report that inadequate, unscientific and unregulated management of biomedical waste is linked to risks impacting people who are directly and indirectly associated with biomedical wastes. Biomedical waste does cause challenges such as threatening the quality of water, air, and soil. Several studies have reported that the proportions of different constituents of wastes, their handling, treatment, and disposal methods have been found to be inadequate in most of the studies (Manzoor and Sharma 2019). Also Manzoor and Sharma (2019) added that the hazard associated with poor biomedical waste management and pertinent shortfalls in the existing systems have been identified by various researchers as the main concerns for the people’s health and living conditions.

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