Medical waste management training for healthcare managers - a necessity?

Background: this is an interventional study, since a training has been given, performed in order to investigatewhether training has significant impact on knowledge levels of healthcare managers (head-nurses, assistant headnurses, hospital managers and deputy managers) regarding bio-medical waste management.methods: the study was conducted on 240 volunteers during june – august 2010 in 12 hospitals serving inistanbul (private, public, university, training-research hospitals and other healthcare institutions). a survey formprepared by the project guidance team was applied to the participants through the internet before and after thetraining courses. the training program was composed of 40 hours of theory and 16 hours of practice sessionstaught by persons known to have expertise in their fields. methods used in the analysis of the data chi-square andt-tests in dependent groups.results: 67.5% (162) of participants were female. 42.5% (102) are working in private, and 21.7% in state-ownedhospitals. 50.4% are head-nurses, and 18.3% are hospital managers.a statistically significant difference was found among those who had received medical waste management training(preliminary test and final test) and others who had not (p < 0.01). it was observed that information levels of allhealthcare managers who had received training on waste management had risen at the completion of that trainingsession.conclusion: on the subject of waste management, to have trained healthcare employees who are responsible forthe safe disposal of wastes in hospitals is both a necessity for the safety of patients and important for itscontribution to the economy of the country.