Knowledge of Bio-medical Waste Management among medical students in a tertiary care hospital -A crosssectional study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION
Bio-medical waste (BMW) can be a health hazard to healthcare professionals, workers and also to general
public. There is an important role of medical students in preventing consequences from mishandling of
bio-medical waste. They should have proper knowledge on BMW management. Hence, the study aimed to
assess knowledge pertaining to BMW management among medical students.
METHODOLOGY
A cross-sectional study was carried out among second- and third-year medical students of a medical college
and out 260 students 154 students participated in the study. The data was collected by using convenient
sampling method between April and May 2022. The data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire
through Google forms and data was analysed using EpiAnalysis.

RESULTS
Among 154 participants, 103 (67%) were females with mean age of 20.4±0.99 years. Among the total
participants, 81 (53%) were 2nd year medical students. About 101 (62%) answered correctly about the colour
coding bags according to biomedical waste management rules. The average score of knowledge is 7.8±2.58.
Around 77 (50%) were found to have average, 33 (21%) good and 26 (17%) poor overall knowledge about
BMW.
CONCLUSION
A majority of the medical students have average knowledge about biomedical waste management. Since
medical students will be dealing with BMW independently in their profession in future, creating proper
awareness through training programmes, plays a very important role in prevention of mishandling of BMW
and its consequences for the students and people involved in health care delivery services.