Assessment of Knowledge and Practices Regarding Disposal of Biomedical Waste by Health Care Providers

According to WHO, Biomedical waste is defined as ?any solid or liquid waste generated during the diagnosis, testing, treatment, research and production of biological product for humans and animals? The different location of waste generation in hospital are operation theatres, wards, labor room, laboratory and nursing homes. The knowledge and practices for handling of biomedical waste is generally restricted to waste handlers (sweepers), that causes main obstruction in biomedical waste management. So, to assess the level of knowledge and practices regarding disposal of biomedical waste by health care providers involved in health care unit, researchers decided to conduct this study. The research study was conducted with an objective to assess the level of knowledge and practices regarding disposal of biomedical waste by healthcare providers. A descriptive research design was used to assess the level of knowledge and practices regarding disposal of biomedical waste in 40 health care providers selected by convenience sampling technique at Regional Hospital in District Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh. Data was collected by using observation method and self (interview) method. Result revealed that the calculated chi-square (?2) values were less than the table value at the 0.05 level of significance. There was non-significant association in level of knowledge and practices with their selected demographic variables and also revealed that there was a significant correlation between the level of knowledge and practices of health care providers regarding disposal of biomedical waste. The study concluded that there was significant correlation (0.506) with Table Value (0.312) and P value (0.001) between the knowledge and practices of health care providers.