To study the awareness about solid waste management rules among nursing professionals in a tertiary care hospital in India

BACKGROUND: In India, on an average, 0.5–0.99 kg/person/day general solid waste is produced which is higher (i.e. 0.1–0.49 kg per person per day) than solid waste generated in low-income nations and lower than in developed countries (1.5 kg per day). The Government of India has issued guidelines for the management of a different kind of hospital waste from time to time including Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules in the year 2016 and is mandatorily applicable to all organizations including the hospitals OBJECTIVE: We conducted this study to assess the knowledge and awareness among nursing professionals regarding various provisions of solid waste management rules, 2016. METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study done on nursing professionals across all seniority and from various specialties and super specialty departments. A pretested questionnaire comprising 20 questions was used as a study tool. RESULTS: There were a total of 550 participants. The mean knowledge count of the respondents was 9.487273 (1.00–14.00). The mean score was 59.3% of the overall achievable score. In the subgroup analysis, respondents above 60 years of age, married, females, urban residents, nursing sisters scored better than the middle-aged professionals, unmarried, males, rural residents, and staff nurses. CONCLUSIONS: This study has given insight into various domains of SWM rules, 2016 where nurses performed well and those where considerable gaps exist. The health care workers are more aware of biomedical waste (M&H) rules, and the solid waste management rules are new to them. It is recommended that the biomedical waste management training program must include training on general solid waste management rules.