Millanzi Walter C, Herman Patricia Z, Mtangi Samweli A
Department of Nursing Management and Education, School of Nursing and Public Health, The University of Dodoma, Dodoma, United Republic of Tanzania.
SAGE Open Med. 2023 May 19;11:20503121231174735. doi: 10.1177/20503121231174735. eCollection 2023.
Healthcare facilities produce a variety of trash that, if handled improperly, could endanger the environment, the health of patients and clients, healthcare personnel, and the general public. Health staff have been given training on infection control and healthcare waste management. It is not apparent whether similar initiatives are taken for sanitary personnel, though. By evaluating sanitary workers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices about healthcare waste treatment in the Dodoma region of Tanzania, this study sought to clarify the situation.
From March to August 2022 in Dodoma, Tanzania, a descriptive cross-sectional study using a quantitative methodology was conducted on 156 randomly chosen sanitary workers. The primary data collection instruments were structured questionnaires that were conducted by interviewers and a trash checklist that the research team created. Statistical Package for Social Sciences computer software was used to conduct a descriptive analysis of the data with a 95% confidence level and a 5% level of significance.
The average age was 28 ± 6.2 years, and there were 74.4% females. Of all of the health institutions under study, 78.4% of the generated medical waste was non-infectious, whereas 21.6% of it was infectious. The share of non-infectious and infectious healthcare waste created by regional referral hospitals was 43.5% and 13.2%, respectively. While 67.8% of sanitary workers believed that handling healthcare waste was not their problem and 63.6% of sanitary workers actually displayed subpar practices of handling healthcare waste, 74.4% of sanitary workers had low understanding about handling healthcare waste. Their procedures for handling medical waste were substantially influenced by the kind of healthcare facility, sex, education, job experience, knowledge, and attitude ( < 0.05).
Sanitary staff members had limited understanding and thought they were less concerned with gathering, moving, and storing medical waste. To provide the highest level of health safety, national health policy and facility-based interventions must support and fund participatory waste management training that is tailored to the sociodemographic profiles of sanitary employees.
医疗机构会产生各种垃圾，如果处理不当，可能会危害环境、患者及客户的健康、医护人员以及公众的健康。医护人员已接受感染控制和医疗废物管理方面的培训。然而，目前尚不清楚是否对卫生人员采取了类似举措。通过评估坦桑尼亚多多马地区卫生工作者对医疗废物处理的知识、态度和做法，本研究旨在厘清这一情况。
2022年3月至8月在坦桑尼亚多多马，对156名随机挑选的卫生工作者进行了一项采用定量方法的描述性横断面研究。主要数据收集工具是由访谈者进行的结构化问卷以及研究团队创建的垃圾清单。使用社会科学统计软件包计算机软件对数据进行描述性分析，置信水平为95%，显著性水平为5%。
平均年龄为28±6.2岁，女性占74.4%。在所有研究的医疗机构中，产生的医疗废物78.4%为非传染性的，而21.6%为传染性的。地区转诊医院产生的非传染性和传染性医疗废物份额分别为43.5%和13.2%。虽然67.8%的卫生工作者认为处理医疗废物不是他们的问题，63.6%的卫生工作者实际表现出处理医疗废物的做法不佳，但74.4%的卫生工作者对处理医疗废物的了解程度较低。他们处理医疗废物的程序受到医疗机构类型、性别、教育程度、工作经验、知识和态度的显著影响（<0.05）。
卫生工作人员了解有限，认为自己较少参与医疗废物的收集、搬运和储存工作。为了提供最高水平的健康安全保障，国家卫生政策和基于机构的干预措施必须支持并资助针对卫生工作人员社会人口学特征量身定制的参与性废物管理培训。
