Comparison of Hospital Waste Management by Health Care Workers In Two Selected (Private And Public) Hospitals In Enugu, South East Nigeria
Comparison of Hospital Waste Management By Health Care Workers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70284/njirm.v9i4.2383Keywords:
Hospital waste management, Health care workers, Public and Private Hospitals, Enugu, South-east NigeriaAbstract
Aim: To compare the management of hospital waste by health care workers in two selected (private and public) hospitals in Enugu, South East Nigeria. Method: A total of 245 health care workers aged between 20-50years working at the Enugu state university teaching hospital (public) and Ntasi-Obi Ndi no na Afufu specialist hospital (Private), both in Enugu, were seen within the period March and August 2017. Their age, sex, duration of work in the hospital and profession were taken. Their methods of management of hospital waste were assessed using questionnaires and oral interviews. The results were compared using chi-square (X2) test to determine if there were any significant differences. Result: Using the x2 test , the following results were obtained; Age- X2= 23.780, P-value=0.00; Religion- X2= 0.6528, P-value=0.419; Duration of work in the hospital; X2=7.718,Pvalue=0.102; Profession-X2=7.718,P-value=0.103; Categorization of hospital waste - X2= 0.2834, P-value=0.9919; Segregation of hospital waste X2=23.80, P-value= 0.00; Color-coding of hospital waste X2=11.8416, P-value=0.0186; Personal protection in handling of hospital waste- X2=16.6083, P-value=0.001; Correct disposal of hospital waste- X2=66.173, P-value= 0.000. There was a significant difference between the age distribution of respondents (P<0.05) in the private and public hospitals while there were no significant differences between religious disposition, duration of work in the hospitals, profession and categorization of hospital waste (P>0.05). Again there were significant differences between their methods of segregation of hospital waste, color-coding of hospital waste, personal protection in handling of hospital waste and correct disposal of hospital waste. Conclusion: There was a significant difference between the management of hospital waste by health care workers in the private and public health facilities as evidenced by the segregation, color-coding, personal protection and correct disposal of hospital waste. This could be attributed to the fact that the public hospitals have more resources for the training and retraining of their health workers and they also employ staff with better skills. We advocate the availability of strong management policy guidelines, training and retraining of health care workers and provision of better facilities for hospital waste management more especially in the private health facilities. This is more indicated in this era of HIV/AIDS where poor handling of hospital waste could lead to infection by the Human Immunodeficiency -virus. [Onoh L, Natl J Integr Res Med, 2018; 9(4):55-61]
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