Levels of Practices and Influencing Factors on the Use of Partograph on Provision of Health care among Nurses in Singida Municipality, Tanzania

Abstract

Partograph is the tool which is used to assess maternal condition, fetal condition contractions and progress of labour. As the result, well filled partograph helps the obstetric care provider to know any abnormal changes and decide better decisions during delivery of health care to the pregnant mother in labour which can help to reduce maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality rate. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the level of practices and elements influencing partograph use among nurses during providing health care in Singida Municipality, Singida region - Tanzania. Methods: Analytical cross sectional study was conducted at Singida Municipality and involved 150 nurses who were randomly selected from maternity departments at Sokoine health center and Singida Regional Referral Hospital in Singida municipality, Tanzania. A practice and associated factors on partograph utilization selfadministered structured questionnaire was used to examine the levels of practices and factors influencing partograph usage on provision of health care. Chisquare test, binary logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression were used to test association and pinpoint significant predictors of level of practice and associated factors on partograph utilization. Results: Findings indicate that out of 150 nurse midwives only 58(38.7%) of the study participants had high level of practice on the application of partograph during delivery of health care. Nurses who got the university education 35(83.3%) and nurse and midwife officers 36(81.8%) had high level of practice on partograph usage compared to assistants nurse officers and enrolled nurses 37(57.8%) and 25(59.5%) respectively. However, after control of the extraneous factors, nurses who reached at university level were more than sixteen times likely to have a good practice on usage of partograph charts (AOR=16.757; 95%CI: 6.394; 43.915; p = 0.000) and nurses and midwives officers were more than eight times likely to have a good practice on partograph utilization on delivery of health care (AOR=8.323; p = 0.004; 95%CI: 0.098; 0.642). Conclusion: The overall levels of practices on partograph utilization were low. The study uncovered that education level and professional qualification were the main factors influencing usage of partograph during provision of health care in Singida municipality, Singida region-Tanzania. Therefore on job training and workshop should be among of deliberate efforts to ensure good utilization of partograph during provision of health care so as to reduce maternal complications, mortality and fetal deaths in Tanzania.