A descriptive study to assess the knowledge on biomedical waste management among health team member in selected hospital, Mangalore

A descriptive designs were used to gain more information about characteristics within a particular field of study on knowledge of health team members regarding biomedical waste management in selected hospitals, Mangalore, overall 40 samples were participated in the study. Probability stratified random sampling technique is used to select the sample for the study. Result: Analysis of base line characteristics of subjects reveals that among the health team members 60% belong to the age group of 20-25 years,92.5% are females ,30% are MBBS/PG,55% have 0-2 years of experience,72.5% are working in wards,50% are underwent training programme and 50% are not underwent training programme. Assessment of knowledge of health team members regarding biomedical waste management reveals the majority 72.50% of health team members has good knowledge and 25% of health team members have average knowledge and 2.50% have excellent and 0% has poor knowledge. The study is supported by similar study conducted in Mangalore, Karnataka on assessing the knowledge and practices of health care providers in handling biomedical waste. Knowledge of health team members had significant association between knowledge regarding biomedical waste management. Conclusion: The management of waste remains a challenge for the nation at large.it is our responsibility as individual, institutions, companies and organization to play our much needed roles in order to arrest situation. The agency shall continue to work rigorously hand in glove with all stakeholders. Safe and effective management of waste is not only a legal necessity but also a social responsibilities. So try to reduce the waste generation, use recyclable products, individual awareness and participation, communicate about work place hazards.


Introduction
According to Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1998 of India, biomedical waste (BMW) means any wastes solid, fluid or liquid waste including its containers and any intermediate product which are generated during the diagnosis, treatment and immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biologicals 1 .In present scenario, population explosion and advances in medical facilities with the introduction of sophisticated instruments have increased the waste generation per patient in tertiary health care units 2 .The cause mortality data from India and other developing countries show that infectious diseases are the most common cause of deaths 3 .Improper biomedical waste management has the potential to spread infections leading to development of resistant organisms and bringing these resistant hospital organisms to the doorstep of the community.But among all health problems, there is a particular concern with HIV/ AIDS, Hepatitis B and C for which there is a strong evidence of transmission through health care wastes.Though legal provisions (Biomedical Waste Rules 1998) exist to mitigate the impact of hazardous and infectious hospital waste in the community, still these provisions are yet to be fully implemented especially in India where the level of awareness is found to be unsatisfactory in comparison to the global scenario 4 .The absence of proper waste management, lack of awareness about the health hazards from biomedical wastes, insufficient financial and human resources and poor control of waste disposal are the most critical problems connected with health care wastes 5 .

Research approach
The research approach adopted for the study is quantitative research approach as the researcher aimed at assessing the knowledge of health team members regarding biomedical waste management.

Research design
Descriptive designs are designed to gain more information about characteristics within a particular field of study on knowledge of health team members regarding biomedical waste management in selected hospitals, Mangalore, a nonexperimental descriptive design is found to be appropriate

Setting of the study
Setting is the physical location and conditions in which the data collection takes place in a study.The present study is conducted at hospital Mangalore.The setting is selected for feasibility of conducting the study and availability of samples.

Sample and sample size
A sample is a subset of population selected to participate in a research study.A sample of 40 health team members in selected hospital in Mangalore.

Sampling technique
Sampling is a process of selecting a portion of the population to represent the entire population.Probability stratified random sampling technique is used to select the sample for the study.

Development of the tool
An instrument is a device used to measure the concept of interest in a research project.The instrument selected in a research should be ,as far as possible ,be the vehicle that could best obtain data for drawing conclusions ,which are pertinent to the study In this study the researcher used a structured knowledge questionnaire, which is prepared on the basis of an intense search of related literature.

Data collection procedure
Data collection is the precise and systematic gathering of information relevant to the research purpose or specific objectives, questions or hypothesis of a study.Administrative permission is obtained from the Principal, K Pandyarajah Ballal College of Nursing, Mangaluru Permission is taken from Medical surgeon of selected hospital Informed consent is obtained from the participantsData is collected on 16/07/2019.The sample consisted of 10 health team members.Background information is collected using Sociodemographic Proforma.Knowledge regarding biomedical waste management is assessed by using structured knowledge questionnaire.The data is collected and recorded systematically on each subject and organized in a way that facilitates computer entry.

Plan for analysis of data
Data analysis is conducted to reduce, organize and give meaning to the data.Analysis technique in quantitative research includes descriptive and inferential statistics.Organizing the data in the master sheet.Frequency and percentage of data will be calculated for describing the demographic variable Mean, mean percentage, and standard deviation will be used to present the knowledge scores regarding biomedical waste management.Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test will be used to find the association between knowledge of health team members on biomedical waste management with selected demographic variables.Analyzed data will be presented in the form of tables and figures.

Organization of the findings
The data collected from the subjects have been organized and presented under the following headings:  Section 1: Description of demographic characteristics of the health team members  Section 2: Analysis of knowledge of health team members regarding bio medical waste management. Distribution of participants according to knowledge scores. Section 3: Association between knowledge of health team members regarding bio medical waste management with selected demographic variables.Association between knowledge regarding bio medical waste management with selected demographic variables.

Section1: Description of demographic characteristics of the health team members
Thispartdealswithdistributionofparticipantsaccordingtotheirdemographiccharacteristics.Data is analyzed using descriptive statistics and is summarized in terms off requency and percentage.So it can be concluded that there is significant association between knowledge regarding biomedical waste management and selected demographic variables.

Conclusion
The management of waste remains a challenge for the nation at large. it is our responsibility as individual, institutions, companies and organization to play our much needed roles in order to arrest situation.The agency shall continue to work rigorusly hand in glove with all stake holders.Safe and effective management of waste is not only a legal necessity but also as ocial responsibilities.O try to reduce the waste generation, use recyclable products, individual awareness and participation, communicate about workplace hazards.
On the basis of the study, following conclusions have been drawn:  Majority of the health team members belonged to the age group between 20-25 years. Majority of the health team members belonged to MBBS/PG.
 Majority of the health team members have good knowledge on 'bio medical waste management'.None of the health team members have poor knowledge regarding biomedical waste management. The significant association of knowledge regarding bio medical waste management among health team members. Finally, all the demographic variables of health team members are found to be independent of the knowledge regarding biomedical waste management.

Table 1
Frequency and distribution of subjects according their age N = 40

Table 2
Frequency and distribution of subjects according their gender N=40

Table 2 :
reveals that most of the subjects (93%) are females and 7% are males.

Table 3
Frequency distribution of subjects according to their educational qualification N=40

Table 3
reveals that most of the subjects (30%) are MBBS/PG, 22.5%are GNM and Primary education, 17.5% are BSC/PBSC Nursing and 7.5% are MLT.

Table 4
Frequency and distribution of subjects according to their year of working experience N=40

Table 4 :
reveals that most of the subjects (55%) have working experience of 0 -2 years,25% are having experience of 6 -10 years,15% are having experience of 35 years and 5% are having experience of above 10 years.

Table 5
Frequency and distribution of subjects according to their area of work N=40

Table 6
Frequency and distribution of subjects according to attendence in training programme N=40

Table 7
Mean, median, Standard deviation, Mean percentage of total knowledge scores of health team members regarding biomedical waste management.N=40The data in table 7 depicts that the health team members have good knowledge regarding biomedical waste management.The mean score of the subject is 15.35, median is 15 and SD IS 2.62.

Table 8
Selected Demographic variable and knowledge regarding biomedical waste management Data presented in table 8 reveals that chi square values are less than the table value at 0.05 level of significance in gender and area of work.The chi square values are more than the table value at 0.05 level of significance in age, educational qualification, and year of experience and training programme.Hence the research hypothesis is accepted in age, educational qualification, year of experience, and training programme.Research hypothesis is rejected in gender and area of work.And the null hypothesis is accepted in gender and area of work.