Evaluating Outcomes of Education on Waste Management in the Hospital Setting

With advancements in healthcare, we continue to find new needs that must be addressed. Hospitals generate a substantial amount of medical waste, and proper disposal is important for patient and staff safety, environmental protection, and cost efficiency. A series of studies show there is a need for further education on hospital waste management policies. This thesis aims to evaluate education interventions to improve knowledge and healthcare waste disposal practices. This literature review was conducted using multiple databases, including MedLINE, CINAHL, GreenFILE, Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, and NCBI, to find qualifying research articles in the English language from 2005-2018. Key terms for the searches were: education, training, waste, disposal, healthcare, medical, reduction, hospital, pound, and kilogram. Results demonstrate that further education on hospital waste management has the potential to reduce waste, improve disposal and segregation, and reduce costs. However, the lack of consistency in the research, literature, and educational interventions all pose as limitations. Hospitals have the potential to benefit from improved waste management practices by enhancing patient care, reducing waste, saving costs on waste disposal, and protecting the environment