Knowledge and practice of immediate newborn care among health care providers in eastern zone public health facilities, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2016.

BACKGROUND: According to WHO (2013) report the number of under five-year mortality in Ethiopia was 195,504, out of this 84,437 was from neonatal death and this mortality is related to immediate obstetric and newborn care of babies provided by health care providers; But little was known about the level of knowledge and practice related to immediate newborn care and their associated factors among health care providers generally in Tigray region and specifically in the Eastern Zone so the aim of this study was to assess knowledge and practice of immediate newborn care and associated factors among health care providers in the Eastern zone public health facilities, Tigray, Ethiopia.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2015 to February 2016. A total of 16 health care facilities were selected for study using simple random sampling techniques and all health care providers in the selected health care facilities who participated in immediate newborn care were involved in the study. Data were entered, cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Ethical clearance was obtained from Adigrat University institutional ethical review board and Tigray regional health bureau. Consent was obtained from participants to conduct the study.

RESULT: In this study 215 participants were contacted, with a response rate of 99.1%. Generally, from the health care providers who participated in this study, 74.65% had adequate knowledge on newborn care and overall 72.77% of the participants were having good newborn care practice. Among the health care providers participated in the study, 151 (70.9%) were getting access to newborn care national guideline and only 99 (46%) of the health care providers get training in newborn care within the past two years before the study. Availability of national guideline, having adequate materials, the period of taking training and type of health facility were significant predictors for the health care providers newborn care practice.

CONCLUSION: Even though some improvement observed in the knowledge and practice of health care providers on newborn care, but still this study identified knowledge and practice gap. Regional health bureau and district health offices should provide refreshment training on immediate newborn care regularly, equipping all health facilities with necessary materials and national guideline of newborn care and there should be sharing experience between hospital and health center staffs working on newborn care through mentoring.