THE NURSING STAFF METHODS OF MANAGING HOSPITAL WASTE OF VLORA REGIONAL HOSPITAL AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Health institutions are a tool of health defence, correction of patients and preservation of human life. These institutions also produce hospital waste which may have the risk of infection spreading, the risk of exposure from radiation and chemical elements, and the risk of causing various trauma. [1]. Purpose: Evaluation of the way of management of hospital waste, from Vlora Regional Hospital nursing staff, and the assesment of hospital waste on the environment. This is a descriptive analytical study. The area studied is the Regional Vlora Hospital. The number of nursing staff participating in this study was N= 320. Data processing of this study was done by SPSS 17.0, ANOVA and Post Hoc Test (LSD) statistical method. In this study we noticed that 24% of nursing staff didn’t throw the general hospital waste in appropriate containers. As the result, this behavior may also cause environmental pollution. 35.5% of nursing staff participating in this study didn’t throw anatomical human hospital waste in the appropriate container. Based on this study, we can conclude that a considerable part of nursing staff didn’t throw hospital waste in adequate container. As a result a phenomen like this is a potential source for environmental pollution. This will be more evident during the definitive moments of compensation of hospital waste. For example, waste that are designated to be discarded in the crematorium are mostly thrown in container of common urban waste and this will bring the environmental pollution.