Medical Interns�¢?? Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Labour Pain Management at Jimma University Medical Center

Abstract

Background: Unmanaged severe labour pain can result in physiological and psychological health problems to women and may also affect the new born while pain management is a fundamental human right. Furthermore, healthcare providers have a duty of care to support women as a principal of reproductive right and to improve quality of care. Hence, this study is aimed to assess Medical Interns’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Labour Pain Management at Jimma University Medical Center. Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from November 12-13/2019. Self-administered structured questionnaire prepared in English was used to collect the data. Pretest was done among five percent of Riftvalley University Collage Jimma branch final year midwifery students. Cronbach alpha test was done and it was 0.87. Data were entered in to Epidata version 3.1 and then analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: Less than half 48(25.9%) of the medical interns know monitoring labour pain can contribute for quality of maternal health care. Majority of the interns 88.1% know labor pain management while only 58.4% have you ever offered any type labour pain relief. The overall favorable attitude, good knowledge and good practice of this study participants are 45.9%, 54.1% and 31.9% respectively have of labour pain management. Conclusion: This study identified that the overall knowledge, attitude and practice of Jimma University Medical Center graduating medical students is low. Consequently, all concerning bodies including Federal Ministry of Education, policy makers and curriculum developer should work on mechanisms to strengthen medical interns’ knowledge, attitude and practice.