Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding the Factors and Management of Maternal Mortality Amongst the 2nd Year Degree and Diploma Nursing Students at a University, Windhoek, Namibia

Abstract

Joseph Galukeni Kadhila, Eveline Tjomombura

Background: Maternal death is a major health problem in Namibia as it is the case in most countries. The rate at which women are dying due to pregnancy related causes is high and the cause as well as risk factors are not well explored. Despite the introduction of several interventions by the Ministry of Health and Social Services to prevent the maternal deaths, according to the Namibian Demographic Health Survey, the maternal mortality ratio was 249 in 1992, 271 in 2000, 449 in 2006-2007 and 385 in 2013 respectively. It was against this background that the researcher conducted this to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the factors and management of maternal mortality amongst the 2nd year degree and diploma nursing students at a university, Windhoek, Namibia.

Aims: Assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of 2nd year degree nursing students and diploma nursing students at University regarding the factors and management of maternal mortality.

Objectives: This project is a report of a study to determine the knowledge and practice of 2nd year diploma and degree nursing students regarding factors and their management and to evaluate the attitude and assess the practice of the 2nd year diploma and degree nursing at a University regarding factors and management of maternal mortality.

Methodology: In this study Quantitative approach was used so as to collect numerical data from the participants de- scriptive cross-sectional design was used to obtain data. Quantitative approach is the mathematical method of measur- ing and describing the observation of materials or characteristics. The target population of this study was the 2nd year diploma and degree student at the University of Namibia, main campus, Windhoek. Data was collected from the 13th of August 2022 to the 12th of October 2022 and was collected online using google forms. Researcher used probability sampling approach as a process of selecting the sample from the population. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the relationships between independent and dependent variables.

Results: A response rate of 54% was achieved. Out of 79 participants, 87.3% (n=69) were female and they were domi- nating while 12.7% (n=12) were male nursing students. All participants were Namibian. The majority of the participants had grade 12 certificate as the highest qualifications abstained. The study reveals that there was good display of knowl- edge, practice and attitude on the identification of factors related to maternal mortality.

Conclusion: lack of knowledge, practice and attitude on identification and proper management of factors associated with maternal mortality were revealed in the study. 34.6% of the participants failed to identify puerperal sepsis as an infection that can lead to maternal mortality while 65.4% were able to identify it correctly.

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