According to the Hospital Waste Management Rules (1998), "Hospital waste" is any kind of waste items that are generated during the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization process among human begins or animals, or any research-based activities. Approximately seventy-five percent to ninety percent of hospital waste created by healthcare team members is "general" or "non-risk" wastes. The ten percent to 25 percent of the Hospital -based waste items that are left behind are dangerous and are thought to constitute a risk to human health, risk of infection and harm from waste generated during medical procedures is higher than that from any other sort of waste. ¹

Hazardous hospital waste exposure can cause illness or harm. Everyone who comes into contact with hazardous hospital waste, whether they produce it, handle it, or come into contact with it as a result of negligence management, is potentially harmful. The foremost risky health group people under health care workers are comprised of physicians, nursing staff, health-care auxiliaries, and hospital maintenance personnel. ²

Therefore, it is imperative, to have a safe way of disposing of hospital waste because it could lead to negative effects on the general public’s health and the surrounding environment. ³

A Cross-Sectional research study was done on occupational exposures to blood and bodily fluids & the risk of blood-borne infections in rural north India. The results showed that, out of 266 healthcare workers, sixty-three per cent of Health Care Workers had at least one percutaneous injury (PI) within one year (mean score = 2.3), and the highest level of occupational exposure to blood stains was seen among the Health Care Workers. This indicates, it's crucial to have a trustworthy and safe way to handle Hospital waste because it can also have a negative impact on the environment and general health. ⁴

Thus, the current research study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the effectiveness of a structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding hospital waste management among housekeeping employees at R. L. Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre, Karnataka”.

For the current research study, a Quasi-experimental, one-group pre-test and post-test design was adopted. The study was conducted at R. L. Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre in Kolar, Karnataka, after taking written consent from the Medical Superintendent and ethical clearance from an institutional ethics committee. The researchers developed the tool which had two sections, the first section had socio-demographic data and the second section included items on knowledge regarding hospital waste management. The tool was validated by seven subject experts. Pilot study was conducted to assess the feasibility of the study. Using simple random sampling technique, a lottery method, 80 participants who fulfilled inclusion criteria like who had greater than 1 year of working experience in the same organization and were willing to participate in the study were included. Then an informed written consent was obtained from all study participants. Using structured knowledge questionnaire by interview method, data was gathered individually from all the study participants. Followed by a structured teaching programme on hospital waste management was administered in groups to all housekeeping employees using a PowerPoint presentation and also demonstrating how to collect, handle, and dispose the hospital waste as well as how to prevent infection. To collect the data from each participant, it took a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 20 minutes, and for teaching, it took 45 minutes to an hour. The data was collected from 08/01/2018 to 16/02/2018.

The collected data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and the results are presented as follows;

With regard to overall knowledge scores on Hospital Waste Management, majority (81.25%) of “housekeeping employees had inadequate knowledge and this was supported by the study on the knowledge and awareness regarding the Hospital waste management among the employees of a tertiary care hospital. ⁵

With regard to the “effectiveness of the structured teaching program, the mean post-test knowledge score” was 21.15, which was greater than the pre-test knowledge score (13.15), and it was statistically significant at the 0.001 level. This was supported by the study on the development of waste management protocols based on the knowledge and practice of health personnel in surgical departments. ⁶

With regard to the association between level of knowledge with selected socio-demographic variables, there was a statistically significant association between age, educational status, income, years of experience, and area of experience, except for gender and exposure to occupational hazards. This finding was contradicting with the study on knowledge regarding hospital waste management among hospital attendants. ⁷

In the current study, the structured teaching program improved housekeeping employees’ knowledge scores. In order to ensure the proper management and disposal of hospital waste, such as awareness programs must be frequently undertaken in the hospitals.

The authors acknowledge the housekeeping employees for participating in the study and the Medical Superintendent and Chief Nursing Officer of RLJHRC for granting permission to conduct the research study.