Conhecimento dos profissionais de enfermagem frente à gestão de resíduos quimioterápicos em hospital universitário

Abstract

Introduction: Hospitals are the largest generator of waste compared to other health services. Waste generated by this system is considered as Health Services Waste - HSW, the diversity, complexity and volume of services provided by hospitals favor the proportion of volume produced. Among the various waste generated in the hospital environment, there is the waste from treatments performed with antineoplastic chemotherapy. As stated in the Collegiate Board Resolution No. 222/18, chemotherapeutic waste is classified as chemical products, ie products that act at the cellular level with the potential to produce genotoxicity, cytotoxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity and teratogenicity. The management of antineoplastic chemotherapeutics is a practice that involves several professionals, especially nursing staff, and exposure to this material is harmful to health if not handled correctly. Objective: To identify the knowledge of nursing professionals regarding the management of antineoplastic waste. Therefore the knowledge of the nursing team about the disposal of health services waste, especially antineoplastics, was analyzed; it was verified if the nursing professionals could distinguish chemical waste from infected or common waste; and a socio-demographic profile of the nursing team that discards antineoplastic waste was outlined. Method: This is a descriptive and exploratory study, whose focus was on describing characteristics and practices of nursing professionals considering data collected through a questionnaire. In addition, the practice of field observation was used during the workday of the participants. The study itself occurred in the oncology sector of the Uberlândia Hospital of Clinics - HCU, also known as the Cancer Hospital. Results: Considering the classification of the waste into five groups, 83.87% of the participants identify the packaging according to each class of waste. However, when it comes to evaluating the theory assertions, for example, the identification of the RSS groups and standardized packaging, the correct identification is greater than when faced with practical disposal situations. Conclusion: Nursing professionals present difficulties in correlating their theoretical knowledge with the practice of discarding policies. Therefore, RSS management is important to prevent the negative effect on public health and reduce the environmental impact caused by inappropriate waste disposal in the hospital.