Effect of Health Care Workers Training on Targeted Postnatal Care Package and Nurses Mentorship on Maternal Knowledge of Neonatal Danger Signs among Mothers Attending Well Baby Clinics in Nakuru County, Kenya: Quasi Experimental Study

Authors

  • Elizabeth G. Kibaru
  • Amos M. Otara

Keywords:

danger signs, newborn illness, MCH booklet

Abstract

Background: Health care workers role in imparting knowledge to mothers on obstetric care is pivotal in order to increase recognition of symptoms in neonates that indicate serious illnesses. Objective: To determine whether there was a change in level of knowledge on neonatal danger signs among mothers in the Nakuru County after the trainings on targeted postnatal care and the mentorship of nurses. Study design: Quasi experimental study. Study method: Hospitals providing obstetric care in Nakuru County were purposively selected. Mothers with children aged 0-9 months attending well baby clinics were sampled and interviewed at the baseline in 2014. Training and mentorship of nurses from the selected facilities on targeted postnatal care was done. On the third phase of the study a different cohort of mothers were interviewed in 2015. Structured questionnaires were used to determine mothers’ knowledge on neonatal danger signs. Data was processed using the SPSS software (version 22). Results: 414 mothers were interviewed for phase 1 and 3 of the study. 310(73.9%), 198(46.6%), 166(40.1%), 146(35.3%) identified newborn danger signs as hotness of body, difficulty breathing, poor sucking, jaundice respectively at baseline and this improved after intervention to 331(80%), 326(78.7%), 217(52.4%) respectively. Mothers who could identify more than three neonatal danger signs improved from 63(15.2%) to 203(49%). Conclusion: Training and mentorship of nurses had a positive effect on maternal knowledge of postnatal neonatal danger signs.

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Published

2022-05-10

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2022)

Section

Articles

License

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