Factors associated with biomedical waste management practices among healthcare personnel at Mbagathi county hospital, Nairobi Kenya

Abstract

Medical care is vital for life and health, but the waste generated from medical activities presents a problem to human health. Mbagathi county hospital generate 210-341kg infectious and highly infectious waste per day. Lack of work place guideline in many hospitals in developing countries, the implementation of biomedical waste regulations is still below the recommended threshold. This study determined factors associated with biomedical waste management practices among healthcare personnel in Mbagathi county hospital, in Nairobi Kenya. This descriptive cross sectional study used quantitative technique to gather relevant data. Purposive sampling was used to have 195 healthcare personnel as a study subject. Quantitative data were collected using structured questionnaires and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists version 20. A descriptive analysis was used to summary the data and association between variable were tested using chi-square, multivariate and bivariate statistical test. P-values were considered significant at < 0.05. Among the surveyed healthcare personnel, the mean age (±SD) was 31.9 (7.5) years, (86.2%) had tertiary level education and (48.7%) were nurses. A significant voluminous of waste are generated: (96.9%) sharps, (91.3%) pharmaceutical, (90.3%) pathological, (81%) kitchen, (68.7%) incineration ash while the least produced waste reported (64.6%) radioactive wastes. Significant number of study participants (22.6%) had inadequate knowledge on biomedical waste management, with score of ≤ 50%. The nurses scored significantly more with regards to the knowledge on biomedical waste management compared to other healthcare personnel (P =0.001). 31% of study participant did not know when to seal safety bins. 28.2 %, 3.1% of the study participants disagreed and strongly disagreed respectively on management of the biomedical waste at the facility (P=0.005). Out of 195 of study participants, 6.7% had not agreed on recommended practices related to biomedical waste management at the hospital (P =0.001). Waste generated at various departments are source of infection that healthcare personnel and patient are exposed to and variation of knowledge among healthcare personnel is an indication of inadequacy as far as biomedical waste management is concerned. Periodic sensitization of staff using existing friendly channel to convey messages, environmental and occupation health unit to be incorporated in all curriculum for early exposure so as to address concern arising from biomedical waste management in health facility.