Clean and Dirty: Hygiene and Medical Waste

The Social Sciences team at CRCF organised the 7th training session for research assistants in social sciences, held from February 4 to 15, 2024, on the theme Clean and Dirty: Hygiene and Medical Waste. This training was intended for 23 young graduates in socio-anthropology or community health (Master’s level, year 1 or 2), selected through a call for applications. One of the selection criteria was prior participation in research on waste management. Various guest speakers with complementary expertise in waste management were invited to take part, including hygiene officers, doctors, nurses, and the director of the national program overseeing biomedical waste management.

The training was structured in two parts:

The first week consisted of a series of sessions in the mornings covering key aspects of the topic:

• Anthropological approach: The clean and the dirty, hygiene and medical waste
• Presentation of the project After the Single Use
• Prevention of healthcare-associated infections
• Role and responsibilities of the coordination of the national programme to fight healthcare-associated infections (Ministry of Health)
• Laboratory waste management
• Hospital waste management
• Nosocomial (healthcare-associated infection) risk in a pulmonology department (a medical perspective)
• Nosocomial risk in a pulmonology department (a nursing perspective)
• Hospital waste: toxicological risks and preventive measures
• Group reading and discussion of: Hygiene and Popular Cleanliness Practices: The Case of Waste Collection in Thiès (Senegal) by François Enten

The afternoons were dedicated to theoretical and practical sessions on research methodology in Social Sciences, including basic concepts, research ethics, principles and techniques of qualitative research, genealogical approaches, thematic analysis, and questionnaire design.

The second week, participants conducted interviews at sites of their choice, either focusing on biomedical waste management in healthcare facilities or on household-level waste management. All interviews were submitted to supervisors for review and feedback. The CRCF team organised a session to present and discuss the results. Following these analyses and discussions, the ten best participants were selected. In line with CRCF’s policy, they will be contacted as soon as project funding becomes available.