Hospitals have been existing in one form or the other since time immemorial but there never had
been so much concern about the waste generated by them. The implications of hospital wastes are
manifold. Now hospital waste management is one of the thrust areas which are drawing attention
of health authorities and also the government. Hospital waste management requires commitment
from persons at all the levels of the health care facility.The present interventional study was
conducted to assess the knowledge attitude and practice about hospital waste management and to
provide training programme on hospital waste management for the staff and to assess the effect
of training among the staff of dental teaching hospitals in Bangalore city. For the purpose of
conducting this study cluster sampling procedure was adopted and eight dental teaching
hospitals were randomly selected.A specially prepared and pre-tested structured questionnaire
was given to assess the knowledge attitude and practices among the staff of dental teaching
hospitals and collected personally. In each institution the following elements were studied
using checklist i.e segregation disinfection disfigurement containment colour coding
personal protective equipment in house transport and disposal. One day training programme on
the hospital waste management was organized at each dental college. Training was given in
English to the Dentist and Dental Auxiliary and the local (Kannada) language for the Attenders.
Learning media used was Audiovisual Aid- LCD projector. The duration of training per each cadre
was for one and half hour which was interactive participatory and task focused. Two months
after initial training the same baseline questionnaire was administered to the staff i.e.
Dentist Dental Auxillary and Attenders and monitoring of the waste management practices was
done using the same check list used earlier. Intervention was evaluated by assessing
improvements in their knowledge attitude and practice scores after intervention in comparison
to the base line scores. This comparison involved mean and percentage changes in their
knowledge attitude and practice on the hospital waste management. Appropriate statistical
tests were used to analyze the data.177 dentists 19 auxiliaries and 54 attenders completed the
study. Two months after intervention 24.4% improvement in knowledge was found among the
dentists 18.7% improvements among auxiliaries and 23.3% improvements (p0.001 significant)
among the attenders when compared to the baseline knowledge. Change in attitude was 36.2%
change among the dentists 33.3% among auxiliaries and 56.42% among the attenders (p0.001
significant) when compared to the baseline attitude. Change in practice was 17.6% among the
dentists 16.4 % among auxiliaries and 4.4 % among the attenders when compared to the baseline
practice. The findings of this study suggest that a training programme increases the knowledge
as well as the sense of responsibility resulting in change in attitude and practices.
