Revista de Enfermagem e Cuidados

Knowledge of Essential Newborn Care among Nurses and Midwives working in Lideta Subcity Government Health Centers

Abstract

Filmona Mekuria* , Alemayehu Bekele, and Tinebeb Seyoum

Background: Neonatal mortality constitutes a major public health problem. Ethiopia has made a great progress on
institutionalization of deliveries where deliveries are mainly facilitated by midwives and nurses by providing essential newborn care. Hence,
assessing the knowledge of these professionals is a primary concern. Therefore, this study is intended to identify knowledge gap on
essential newborn care.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge of essential newborn care and associated factors.
Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted. All nurses and midwives who provide delivery and neonatal care were
involved in the study. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to participants to collect data and facilitated by data collectors. Data
was entered to statistical package for social sciences version 21 and analyzed. Finally, the results were illustrated in the form of text, tables and
graphs.
Results: The mean knowledge score of study participants was 12.66. The study revealed that 55% of the respondents had good knowledge
of essential newborn care. Field of study was found to have significant association with the knowledge of essential newborn care.
Conclusion and recommendation: The study population had poor knowledge on some aspects of essential newborn care. Field of study was
found to be independent predictor of knowledge. Therefore, strengthening and incorporation of all components of essential newborn care in
the curriculum was recommended.