Nurse-midwives knowledge and utilization of partograph in monitoring of labour in tertiary hospitals in Enugu, South-Nigeria

RESUMO

It is not clear whether knowledge of partograph has influence the management of women in labour by nurse-midwives working in tertiary hospitals, Enugu, Nigeria. Many women in labour do not benefit from the use of partograph in monitoring of normal proceedings of labour despite its importance in reducing maternal and infant mortality. This study examined nurse-midwife's knowledge and utilization of partograph in monitoring of labour in tertiary hospitals in Enugu, Nigeria. A cross sectional descriptive study with a sample of 96 nurse-midwives working in the reproductive health units of two tertiary hospitals in Enugu metropolis were used for the study. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. All analyses were performed using IBM SPSS version 20.0 at a 5% level of significance. Result showed that all the respondents at tertiary hospitals had heard about partograph. Few 40(80%) of the nurse-midwives in UNTH and 32(69.6%) in ESUTH utilized partograph during labour management. Factors that hindered use of partograph were lack of intermittent training of nurse-midwives and non-availability of partograph charts with mean score of 1.19 respectively. The association between the years of working experience and the use of partograph failed to be statistically significant (P = 0.90). There is need for improvement in knowledge and use of partograph during labour management through continuing education for nurse-midwives, periodic workshops and mandatory hospital policy on use of partograph during management of labour