Assessment of Healthcare Waste Management Practices of Community Pharmacists in Jos Metropolis

Abstract

Background: Proper management of healthcare waste (HCW) is of great concern because of potential public health risks and damage to the environment associated with such waste. The distinct categories of HCW are sharps wastes, infectious wastes, pharmaceutical wastes, such as cytotoxic wastes, hazardous chemical wastes, radioactive wastes, and non-hazardous general wastes. Amajority of Nigerian community pharmacies generate most of the categories of HCW by their mode of practice informing the need to evaluate their knowledge of the different categories of HCW and their HCW handling and disposal practices. The study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of the different categories of HCWgenerated within the community pharmacies and their HCWdisposal practices.

Methods: Across-section of 100 registered community pharmacists in Jos metropolis handling HCW was administered a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was structured according to WHO guidelines on the safe management of HCWs to assess their knowledge of the different categories of HCWs generated within their premises and the HCW handling practices. Data were coded and abstracted into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for simple descriptive and inferential analysis.

Results: Atotal of 72 respondents completed the questionnaires giving a 72% recovery rate. Many of the respondents 52 (72.2%) were aware of the different categories of HCW, while 20 (27.7%) were unable to correctly identify the different categories of HCW. 73.6 % stated having a procedure for handling the waste generated and 95.8 % were aware that HCW should be segregated from general wastes. However, the handling and disposal of HCW was done by 63.9 %. From the study, 31.9% of the respondents reported the disposal of sharp waste in safety boxes while 25% used closed waste bins, open burning (38.9%) and disposal with general wastes (22.2%). However, only 5.6 % of the respondents were aware of the colour coding system of HCW.

Conclusion:The results suggest that the respondents have a high knowledge of the different categories of HCW but lower waste-handling practices. To prevent exposing their workers and the public to potential health risks, it is recommended that the healthcare sector needs more training for the proper management of healthcare waste associated with the products and services they provide.