Objective: To unveil the meanings that nursing professionals attribute to practices related to waste management in health services, within the hospital context.
Method: Qualitative research, whose theoretical and methodological references were, respectively, Complexity Theory and Grounded Theory. A total of 30 nursing professionals from a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro participated in the study, between January and August 2022. A semi-structured interview was used for data collection.
Results: The professionals indicate the need for better knowledge about waste management in healthcare services, while revealing their understanding on the importance of this process and of themselves as important elements in impacting the environment and health.
Conclusion: The complexity of the meanings attributed to healthcare waste management practices indicates the dialogue between the fragility of nursing professionals' knowledge and their expanded perceptions about the impacts they can have on this reality.