Impact of Improper Waste Management on Healthcare Workers' Health

This report investigates the detrimental effects of improper waste management within Australian healthcare settings, specifically focusing on the risks of infections among healthcare workers, particularly in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). It defines medical waste, categorizing it into general, infectious, hazardous, and radioactive types, and highlights the observed issues in waste management practices. The research explores the correlation between improper waste disposal and increased infection risks, such as those from sharps injuries and exposure to radioactive substances and cytotoxic drugs. The study poses research questions to analyze the impact of improper waste management and associated infection risks, followed by a literature review examining hospital-associated infections (HAIs) and their prevalence. It also discusses the contributions of the findings to existing theories and practical guidelines for controlling infections, emphasizing the need for better waste management to protect healthcare workers. The report references several studies to support its claims, providing a comprehensive overview of the issue.

RISK OF IMPROPER WASTE MANEGEMENT AND INFECTIONS AMONG HEALTH WORKERS
Introduction
To learn about the process of
improper waste management, one
must understand what is medical
waste. There are four types of
medical wastes which includes
general, infectious hazardous and
radioactive wastes. In various
healthcare sectors it has been
observed that waste management
is not being done properly. This
condition has been found to be
associated with Australian
healthcare services. Infectious risk
has been found to be associated
with solid waste disposition in the
body of healthcare workers (Bari et
al., 2019). For example, it can be
stated that the risk of infection
increases as one gets cut from the
clinical sharp wastes. Infection
associated with pre existing
wounds are also synergized with
the new cuts and punctures from
solid wastes. Radioactive wastes
have been found to decrease the
lifespan of the Australian health
workers by their radioactive effects
(Playford et al., 2016). Toxic
exposure to pharmaceutical
products such as cytotoxic drugs
and antibiotics have been found to
increase the level of drug
resistance microbe infections
among the healthcare workers.
Research question
RQ1: What is the effect of improper waste
management among Australian healthcare
workers in ICU.
RQ2: What is the associated with risk of infection
with RQ1.
RQ3: What is the impact of combined risk of
improper waste management and infections.
Literature review
Infections associated with hospitals are
known as hospital associated infections
or (HAI). Since healthcare workers are
always connected to the constant use of
harmful radioactive wastes and
radioactive products, they are directly
associated with the risk of infections.
According to various pieces of literature,
it can be stated that the risk of cut and
puncture infections associated with
surgical intensive care units have been
found to be higher in the Australian
healthcare services (Van der Geest et al.,
2017). Various organic wastes such as
blood and blood products, on being
improperly managed, becomes a risk of
communicable infection transfer to the
health workers (Maves, Jamros & Smith,
2019). Nosocomial pneumonia has been
found to be the second most common
communicable infection which is
transferred to the healthcare workers in
the Australian ICUs. Genotoxic wastes
falls under the category of radioactive
wastes which leads to the occurrence of
mutations in DNA cause severe
hereditary disorders. These toxic effects
have been found to heavily affect the
health of workers. This is because of the
fact that radioactive wastes acts as
mutagens for human chromosome.
Various research studies have
discussed the fact that control of
healthcare associated wastes should
be done properly in order to reduce
the levels of infections among the
healthcare workers. The next section
will discuss the contribution of this
association with theory.
Contribution to theory
This section will discuss the
contributions of the literature review
towards various guidelines to followed
for controlling the risk of infections. The
association between improper waste
management and risk of infections
associated with the workers of
healthcare unit in the ICU of Australia
has been found to be strong. This factor
has been studied by various research
studies and the association has been
found to be strong (Cesaro & Belgiorno,
2017). This factor has been discussed in
various theories which provides
guidelines for the healthcare workers
across different healthcare sectors in
Australia. This contribution has been
found to support the contribution of
these guidelines towards practical works.
Contribution to practical
Contributions to practical has been found to be
help the healthcare workers in taking actions to
control major causes of hospital associated
infections. This cause has been found to reduce
the improper management of hospital wastes.
Thus, various papers have discussed the fact
that many workers in ICUs have controlled the
infections by properly managing the hospital
wastes.
References
Bari, M. N., Hannan, M. M. A., Alam, M. Z., & Annaduzzaman, M. (2019,
December). Critical issues of present medical waste management practice
in Rajshahi city and its improvement strategies. Journal of Environmental
Treatment Techniques, 7(3), 316-323. DOI:
https://pure.tudelft.nl/portal/files/62825333/Critical_Issues_of_Present_
Medical_Waste_Management_Practice_in_Rajshahi_City_and_its_Improv
ement_Strategies.pdf
Cesaro, A., & Belgiorno, V. (2017, March). Sustainability of medical waste
management in different sized health care facilities. Waste and Biomass
Valorization, 8(5), 1819-1827. DOI:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12649-016-9730-y
Maves, R. C., Jamros, C. M., & Smith, A. G. (2019, October). Intensive Care Unit
Preparedness During Pandemics and Other Biological Threats. Critical care
clinics, 35(4), 609-618. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccc.2019.06.001
Playford, E. G., Lipman, J., Jones, M., Lau, A. F., Kabir, M., Chen, S. C. A., ... &
Iredell, J. R. (2016, December). Problematic Dichotomization of Risk for
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)–Acquired Invasive Candidiasis: Results Using a
Risk-Predictive Model to Categorize 3 Levels of Risk From a Multicenter
Prospective Cohort of Australian ICU Patients. Clinical Infectious
Diseases, 63(11), 1463-1469. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciw610.
Van der Geest, P. J., Mohseni, M., Nieboer, D., Duran, S., & Groeneveld, A. B. J.
(2017, February). Procalcitonin to guide taking blood cultures in the
intensive care unit; a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Clinical
Microbiology and Infection, 23(2), 86-91. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2016.10.004