Problem of home-care waste recovery at home-visit nursing stations by a visit in Japan: A descriptive questionnaire survey

Objective: I conducted a questionnaire survey to figure out the problems involved in the infectious waste recovery at home-visit nursing stations, by means of a visit (automobile, bicycle, public transportation, and walk). Methods: From among the home-visit nursing stations registered at the National Association for Home-visit Nursing Care, 1,965 stations were selected at random, and questionnaires were sent to them. Results: Nurses at 1,308 stations (66.5%) responded to the survey. After excluding 26 stations that were closed and 5 stations that do not generate waste because their main care field is psychiatry, an analysis of the remaining 1,277 stations was made. There was a 9.8% difference in a waste recovery rate between nurses visits by an automobile (80.5%) and non-automobile (70.7%). The most frequently observed supply not recovery was injection needles. There were significant differences between nurses visit by an automobile and non-automobile for answers following: ‘I feel heavy with waste containers'. ‘I feel foul-odor from waste'. Conclusion: As measures to cope with these difficulties, it is necessary to provide the nurses with containers for medical waste suited to home-visit nursing care and tools to reduce for foul-odor from waste.