Knowledge and practices of anaesthetists regarding the disposal of waste anaesthetic gases and sharps in a Department of Anaesthesiology

Abstract

Background The operating room has numerous healthcare hazards that can lead to detrimental health effects. The South African legislation, standards and guidelines governs the management of hazardous healthcare waste. It is the responsibility of the individual healthcare worker (HCW) and the hospital authorities to take the necessary steps to reduce the risks associated with healthcare waste. Anaesthetists are often exposed to waste anaesthetic gases (WAG) and sharps and if managed poorly, can lead to an unsafe working environment. The study will assess the knowledge and practices of anaesthetists of WAG and sharps disposal. Methods A prospective, contextual, descriptive research design was followed. The study population consisted of anaesthetists working in the Department of Anaesthesiology at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire and analysed using Stata version 15 (StataCorp, USA). Results The results indicated that the anaesthetists had inadequate knowledge of the legislation of WAG and sharps disposal, WAG disposal and sharps disposal. However, the knowledge of sharps disposal was greater than the knowledge of WAG disposal. The practices of WAG and sharps disposal varied and only few of the anaesthetists attended training on WAG and sharps disposal. Conclusion The knowledge of the anaesthetists of WAG and sharps disposal was poor with the knowledge of sharps being better than the knowledge of WAG. There was low attendance of training of WAG and sharps disposal, with no significant difference between the adequacy of knowledge and those who received training. The results were concerning, especially with anaesthetists in this study working in a high risk environment due to few-functioning scavenging systems and the high incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in South Africa.