Newborn resuscitation practices among nurses and midwives in Ghana

Background

Newborn resuscitation is critical for reducing mortality and morbidity among neonates with intrapartum complications such as birth asphyxia. Nurses and midwives are at the forefront of caring for newborns with birth asphyxia. Their behaviour, therefore, toward newborn resuscitation is critical to the newborn's survival.

Purpose

The focus of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the performance of newborn resuscitation practices among nurses and midwives in the clinical setting.

Design

and methods: A qualitative explorative, descriptive design was used with a purposive sampling technique to recruit a sample of Seventeen (17) nurses and midwives from two hospitals, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Face-to-face interviews, using a semi-structured interview guide were employed for data collection. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Findings

The findings showed that good knowledge and understanding of newborn resuscitation had a positive impact on the attitude and behaviour of nurses and midwives. Again, people of referents and the family, including culture and religion, had a great influence on the performance of newborn resuscitation.

Conclusion

Factors such as lack of training, shortage of human and material resources, inadequate space, poor supervision, and monitoring were identified as direct and indirect barriers to newborn resuscitation performance among the nurses and midwives in the context of Ghana.

Practice implications

We recommend stakeholders and policymakers institute regular training, inculcating family-centered care in training, monitoring, and provision of the necessary amenities needed for effective newborn resuscitation to help improve the nurse or midwife's behaviours towards their practice.