Segregação dos resíduos sólidos hospitalares

Abstract

In the last century, there was in Brazil a progress concerning the norms and standards that regulate the selection and collecting of medical waste. Although there are laws governing the segregation of medical solid waste, its effectiveness, however, depends on the conscious action of people involved in this process. For that, the objective was to verify and analyze the knowledge and/or compromise by the nursing staff in the process of segregation and disposal of such waste. It is a descriptive-exploratory study with qualitative analysis carried out with nurses, technicians and nursing assistants in two intensive care units of a University Hospital. To collect data, it was used a semi-structured interview during the period of August-September of 2011, having as analysis the appreciation of thematic content, divided into categories, namely: knowledge about the correct segregation of medical solid waste; accomplishment of segregation of medical solid waste; disposal of medical solid waste. Ethical principles were respected during all the research process. It was found that the investigated units know about the waste’s dynamics, but the majority unknows their final destination. The perception of nursing in the hospital ambience is related to patient care; however, not all realize the importance of segregation, having as suggestion the nurse training in order to an effective segregation of medical solid waste and to raise the awareness of the harm they can cause to the environment. Thus, the financing costs relating to the disposal of infectious waste can be reduced, embracing a greater number of professionals involved with the complexity of this theme.