Nurses involved in management of hospital residues: a descriptive study

Abstract

Objective: To discover the nurses’ perceptions of their roles with regard to the process of Health Services’ Residues Management. Method: Qualitative, exploratory and descriptive research conducted with nurses from a university hospital’s open hospitalization units of.  The data was collected through semi-structured interviews held between November 2010 and March 2011. Afterwards, based on the framework of thematic content analysis, the findings were analyzed. Results: The categories related to knowledge about the process of residues management; the difficulties of obtaining the multi-professional team’s cooperation; the nurses’ perceptions since they were responsible for the management process of solid waste; the nurses’ actions as in-service educators; and the emergence of the management process being a difficult task. Conclusion: Since it is a new demand for the profession, there is a continuing need to improve discussion with nurses about the waste management responsibilities attributed to them.