الفهرس 
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Abstract
Medical waste includes any material that could come into contact with the body during diagnosis, research, drug administration or any type of treatment. It is estimated that 75%–95% of bio-medical waste are non–hazardous, whereas 10%–25% are hazardous waste. Medical waste poses an important global challenge because of potential hazards to the environment and public health. Adequate knowledge regarding management of healthcare waste is an important precursor to the synthesis of appropriate attitudes and practices of proper handling and disposal of medical waste by healthcare workers.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate hospital waste management system in Menoufia governorate hospitals. This observational cross-sectional study was carried out at Shebin El-Kom Teaching Hospital, Menoufia University Hospital and El-Helal Health Insurance Hospital. The study subjects consisted of 360 nurses with minimal experience of one year in their working setting, and 150 of workers (Housekeepers and storage, final treatment unite and disposal workers group) who are adult(18 year or older) and mentally and physically able to respond to the data collection tool.Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire to measure waste management knowledge, Performance Observation checklist and Awareness questionnaire for nurses and workers, which were face and content validated by experts and pilot-tested for reliability. Data collection lasted from February 2019 to August 2019.
The main study findings were as following:
o Nurses’ age ranged from 20 to less than 42 years, with more females, and a majority having diploma degree
Summary
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o Patients’ age ranged 18 to less than 45 years, with slightly more females and married, and a majority having a primary education.
o Overall, knowledge in the three hospitals of studied nurses had satisfied knowledge (89.4%). All studied nurses at Teaching hospital had satisfied knowledge compared to (88.3%) in university hospital and (80.0%) in El-Helal Health Insurance hospital.
o Performance of the studied nurses was higher in Teaching hospital than El-Helal Health Insurance and University hospitals (P value =0.001).
o Regarding the overall awareness in the three hospitals (85.3%) of studied nurses had high level of awareness. Nurses in Teaching hospital had high level of awareness (93.3%) compared to (85%) in University hospital and (77.5%) in El-Helal Health Insurance hospital.
o There was statistically significant positive correlation between knowledge of nurses about hospital waste management and their performance and awareness (p value =0.001).
o Regarding the overall knowledge in the three hospitals majority of studied workers (85.3 %) had satisfied knowledge. Workers in El-Helal Health Insurance and University hospitals had satisfied knowledge (92%) compared to (72%) in Teaching hospital.
o Regarding the overall performance of the studied nurses in the three hospitals (82%) had adequate performance. There was significant difference between the three hospitals regarding worker performance it was higher in El-Helal Health Insurance hospital than Uuniversity and Teaching hospitals (P value =0.001).