Nurse's Awareness of Medical Waste Management in Teaching Hospitals Affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences at 2014

Increasing the population growth and the number of health care facilities Lead to use of disposable medical equipment, so it caused increasing the medical waste production. Improper disposal of medical waste poses a serious threat to the environment and public health. Thus the aim of the present study was to determine awareness of the nurses about medical waste management.
Material & This is a descriptive - analytic study with participation of 268 nurses employed in hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Data collection performed using a researcher constructed questionnaire. Sampling method was simple nonrandom. Data analysis performed by descriptive and analytical statistical test and SPSS statistical software, version 14.
The study results showed that there were significant differences between the awareness of nurses and their position in the phase separation, packing and collecting and the waste transportation, also the head nurses had higher score. It was not significant in the maintenance, disinfecting, refining and elimination phases. Also, the awareness of nurses’ scores in separation, packing and collecting, maintenance disinfecting, refining and elimination phases were higher in the nurses who participated in the waste management in-service training courses in versus those that did not precipitate. There was no significant difference in the transportation phase.
Developing and implementation of continuing education and in service programs in the waste management encourage nurses to continuous learning to improve knowledge, attitude and skills it can help in proper waste disposal management. Establish waste disposal management workgroup in the health care centers could be an effective step in this regard.