E-ISSN 2602-3164
EJMI. 2019; 3(1): 1-6 | DOI: 10.14744/ejmi.2019.0007

Nurses’ Knowledge of Hospital Medical Waste Management:Areas to Improve

Elif Oksan Calikoglu1, Aysun Aras1
1Department of Public Health, Ataturk University School of Medicine, Erzurum, Turkey

Objectives: Despite the recognized importance of medical waste management, reports are presenting significant shortcomings. Our aim in this study was to evaluate the knowledge of hospital nurse on medical waste management. Methods: All 540 nurses in a tertiary hospital in Eastern Turkey were invited to take part in a 20-item knowledge test on hospital waste. Results: Of the 467 participants, 387 (82.9%) were females, and 416 (89.1%) had some training on medical wastes. Mean age was 28.8±7.0. The majority (89.1%; n=416) had some training on medical wastes. Mean medical waste knowledge scores were 17.6 ± 2.1 from a scale of 0 to 20. Of the participants, 355 (62.1%) reported being injured with possibly contaminated cutting tools. 132 (34%) did not know that papers used for the packaging of medicinal materials should be discarded into blue bins. Conclusion: This study demonstrated competent knowledge of hospital nurses on medical waste. However, there are still areas to improve about self-protection and separation of recyclable medical waste. Keywords: Medical waste management, nurses, self-injury


Cite This Article

Calikoglu E, Aras A. Nurses’ Knowledge of Hospital Medical Waste Management:Areas to Improve. EJMI. 2019; 3(1): 1-6

Corresponding Author: Elif Oksan Calikoglu

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