Piloting an educational program to improve bioMedical waste management and disposal system in hospitals of Pune, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Background: BMW is an immense problem across the globe, including India. Fifteen percent of hospital waste contains infectious chemicals, toxins, and radioactive material. Many countries perform the open burning/incarnation of biomedical waste causing the emission of hazardous material like dioxins, furans, and particulate matter in the atmosphere. In 2010, Worldwide, new cases of HIV infections, hepatitis B and C were 34,000 and 1,700,000 and 3,15,000 causing many deaths. In 2016, in India, 484 tonnes of BMW is developed on daily basses from 1,68,869 Indian health care system, out of which only 447 tonnes/day is disposed properly and 37 tonnes/day is left untreated. In 2009, the identified cause of 70 died people out of 240 reported cases of hepatitis B was the reuse of un-sterilized and re-use of infected needles and injections in Gujarat, India. The major causes of problems related to BMWMD are inadequate awareness, lack of trained staffs, poor management, or no BMWMD. Intervention program: The current proposal advocates for piloting an educational program to improve BioMedical Waste Management and Disposal system in hospitals of Pune, Maharashtra, India. The BMWMD educational program will be judged for estimating usefulness in increasing knowledge, attitude, and practices of the study participants. The study participants consisted of English-speaking medical staff working in the hospitals and entrusted for biomedical wastes. Random sampling will be done to assign hospitals to the intervention and control groups from the list of government-run and private sector hospitals. Aim: Create awareness and educate medical staff of hospitals regarding proper biomedical waste management and disposal system. The BMWMD educational program will be proven to be successful when there is an improvement in the KAP scores of the study participants. Setting: From the list of hospitals in Pune, Maharashtra, India two government-run hospitals and two private sector hospitals will be selected. One government-run hospital and one private sector hospital will be in the intervention group. One government-run hospital and one private sector hospital will be in the control group. The eligible participants from the hospitals in the intervention group will receive BMWMD educational program. Data collection: Pre-tested, adopted and adapted questionnaire from the previous successfully done research will act as the study instrument for data collection. Intervieweradministered data collection will be done. At baseline and follow-up, data will be collected on the KAP scores of the study participants. Data Analysis: SPSS statistical software will be used for data analysis. Descriptive analysis for frequency, mean and median will be done to analyze socio-demographic characteristics of participants. The t-test will compare the KAP mean scores of intervention and control groups. Pre-observation and post-observation will be compared with the help of the chi2 test for nominal variables and t-test for the numerical variable. Double data entry and spot check will be done. Evaluation project: Quasi-experimental non-equivalent with the control group: pre and post-assessments with panel design. This design will evaluate the increment in KAP scores and effectiveness of BMWMD educational program. The outcome (KAP score) will be assessed by comparing baseline and follow-up assessment with intervention and control groups. Conclusion: The project proves to be successful if as a result of BMWMD education program KAP scores will increase among medical staff. Then this pilot educational program will be publicized and put up in front of the government agencies suggesting them to implement in all the Indian hospitals.