Journal of Nursing & Care

Knowledge and Practice of Essential Newborn Care and Associated Factors among Nurses and Midwives Working at Health Centers in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia, 2016

Abstract

Bayisa Bereka Negussie, Fikadu Balcha Hailu and Asrat Demissie Megenta

Background: In Ethiopia, institutionalization of deliveries are happening at a fast pace. Assessing the knowledge and practice of midwives and nurses in these institutions is a priority in this current scenario. The initial adaptations by the baby at the time of birth should be facilitated by the midwives by giving essential newborn care. Therefore, this study is aimed to identify knowledge and performance gap on essential newborn care.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess knowledge and practice of essential newborn care and associated factors.
Methods: Facility based cross-sectional design was conducted. Simple random sampling method was used to select the estimated 279 study participants from those who provide delivery and neonatal care. Self-administer questionnaires was distributed to participants to collect data and facilitated by data collectors. Data was entered to EpiData Manager and exported to statistical package for social sciences version 20 and analyzed. Finally, the result was illustrated in the form of text and tables.
Results: The mean knowledge score of study participants was 23.27. The study revealed that 52.2% and 47.8% of the respondents had good and poor knowledge respectively. The mean score of practice was 32.82 and 51.1% and 48.9% of the respondents had good and poor level of practice respectively. Field of study, educational level, interest to work in delivery room, in-service training was significantly associated with level of essential newborn care practice.
Conclusion and recommendation: The study population had poor knowledge and practice on some components of essential newborn care. Level of education, interest, in-service training and level of knowledge were found to be independent predictors of practice. Hence, strengthening of in-service training, priority should be given for those trained to give delivery and newborn care service, and incorporation of all components of essential newborn care in curriculum was recommended.