Background: In accordance with the Bio-Medical Waste Rules established in
1988 in India, bio-medical waste is defined as any waste generated during the
diagnosis and treatment of humans and animals, or any waste produced during
the production or testing of biological materials. The management of biomedical
waste has emerged as a critical issue for healthcare providers due to its increased
risk of infection and injury. Insufficient understanding of proper healthcare waste
handling can lead to severe health repercussions.
Aims: To evaluate the level of knowledge evaluate the level of knowledge and
practice about importance of biomedical waste management and prevention
of hospital acquired infection among nursing students and to determine the
association between level of knowledge and practice about importance of
biomedical waste management and prevention of hospital acquired infection
among nursing students with selected demographic variables:
Materials and Methods: The methodology employed for this study was
descriptive in character, for evaluating the knowledge structured questionnaire
and observational checklist were used, number of subjects were 100, sampling
technique of the present study is purposive sampling.
Results: Reveals that in accordance to frequency and percentage of distribution
of respondents according to their selected demographic variables age distribution
of chi-square value is 7.04 and p-value is 0.13. Gender distribution of chi-square
value is 1.96, and p-value 0.3. Academic year & course about Diploma in General
Nursing & Midwifery distribution of chi-square value is 1.98 and p-value is 0.7 (Moderately significant), about Basis B.Sc. Nursing distribution of chi-square
value is 3.78 and p-value is 0.7 (Moderately significant). Undergone in-service
educational programme distribution of chi-square value is 1.51 and p-value is 0.8*
(Highly significant).
Conclusion: Majority of the respondents interpreted from the results that there
exist a significant association between knowledge and practices with age,
educational qualification (general and B.Sc. Nursing), it was noticeable from the
findings that, majority of health team members (87%) were never exposed to any
in-service educational programme regarding biomedical waste management.
This fact stressed the need to spread the message through conducting in-service
educational programmes at tertiary care hospital Belagavi.