Knowledge about Hospital Waste Management among Final Year Medical Students of a teaching hospital, Lahore

Aim: To determine the following among the final year students of the Lahore Medical & Dental College, Lahore: their knowledge & awareness regarding biomedical (BM) waste management policy and practices, their attitude towards biomedical waste management, and their awareness regarding needle-stick injury and its prevalence among different categories of health care providers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire with closed-ended questions. It was distributed to 100 final year MBBS students at Lahore Medical & Dental College. The questionnaire was used to assess their knowledge of biomedical medical waste disposal. The resulting answers were graded and the percentage of correct and incorrect answers for each question from all the participants was obtained. Results: Of the 100 questionnaires, all were returned and the answers graded. The results showed that there was a poor level of knowledge and awareness of biomedical waste generation hazards, legislation and management among the final year MBBS students.It was surprising that only 8(8%) final year MBBS students had excellent knowledge about infectious waste generated from a health care facility, while 92(92%) of students had poor knowledge about it. Conclusions: It can be concluded from the present study that there are poor levels of knowledge and awareness about BM waste generation hazards, legislation and management among the students of a private Medical College. Regular monitoring and training are required at all levels.