Asian Journal of Research in Medicine and Medical Science

This study assessed compliance with WHO maternity healthcare waste management guidelines among nurses and midwives at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used, and the study population comprised 70 nurses and midwives working in the maternity section of the hospital. A census sampling method was adopted because of the manageable population size. Data were collected using a self-structured questionnaire, which was subjected to reliability testing through the test–retest method and yielded a reliability index of 0.89. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages and mean scores, were used to answer the research questions, while the hypothesis was tested using an independent-samples t-test at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that the largest age group among respondents was 18–28 years, accounting for 55.7% of the sample. Most respondents were female (84%), while 16% were male. The majority of respondents (85.7%) demonstrated high knowledge of healthcare waste management, while 14.3% had low knowledge. Similarly, 78.6% of respondents reported high compliance with healthcare waste disposal practices, while 21.4% reported low compliance. Major factors affecting proper waste disposal included inadequate posting of healthcare waste disposal signs and the absence of a supervisory or monitoring nurses’ group for healthcare waste management. The study concluded that healthcare waste management practices among nurses and midwives in the maternity section were generally aligned with WHO guidelines. Regular training, adequate resources and improved supervision are recommended to sustain compliance.