Healthcare Waste Management: connections with sustainable nursing care.

Objective: To understand the meanings revealed by nurses about sustainable care in its connections with the management of Healthcare Waste in hospital.

Method: Qualitative research, whose theoretical and methodological references were, respectively, Complexity Theory and Grounded Theory. Nursing professionals from a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro participated in the study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews.

Results: The actions-interactions signified by the nursing staff, for the management of Healthcare Waste, revealed an understanding of the socio-environmental responsibility of the rational use of material resources; of the need for permanent education to promote environmental education; of the need to supervise the proper management of waste. The professionals perceive themselves as a driving force for reordering positive changes in this context.

Conclusion: The participants signaled implications between knowledge, rational use of materials, waste generation and disposal, health economics and quality of care. From these connections, we can deduce the complex meaning of sustainable hospital nursing care in the context of Healthcare Waste management.