Abstract:
Background: Nursing services is the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or
potential health problems. In Ethiopia quality of nursing services becomes deteriorating over time.
In Dawro zone hospitals, 26.1% of nurses didn’t practice nursing process per the guideline.
Objective: To assess the quality of nursing services in public hospitals of Dawro Zone, southern
Ethiopia, 2018.
Methods: Multiple case study design with mixed methods of data collection was employed from
March 15-April 15/2018. Donabedian’s Structure-Process-Outcome model was used to assess the
quality of the services. Its approach was formative. A total of 369 admitted clients were included
by consecutive sampling technique. Moreover, 81 client-provider interactions, 81 clients’ charts,
one year selected documents and 14 key informants were included. Simple and mult-variable linear
regression analysis techniques were used. Qualitative data was analyzed manually and presented
as triangulation with the quantitative results. The overall quality of the service was determined
based on judgmental criteria.
Results: Availability of program resource scored 70.4% and 53.05% in Tercha and Gessa hospital,
respectively. In Gessa hospital, medication preparation room was available only in one ward,
nursing standard guideline and sterilizer machine were not available on the time of evaluation,
Paracentesis set and lumbar puncture set were not available for the last 3 months. Nurse to patient
ratio in Tercha hospital was 1to 10. Compliance of nurses with national guideline scored 57.95%
and 52.1% in Tercha and Gessa hospitals, respectively. Daily evaluation of patients condition were
not practiced based on guideline for 48.3% patients in Tercha hospital, and 57.1% of patients in
Gessa hospital. Twelve percent of nurses trained about nursing care practices in Gessa hospital.
Only one session supervision was conducted by zonal health department for Tercha hospital. The
overall patient satisfaction with nursing service was 58.85% and 63.06% in Tercha and Gessa
hospital, respectively. Patient expectation on nurse’s responsiveness score, patient experience on
institutional aspect score, and absence of assigned nurses for the patient have significant
association with patient satisfaction.
Conclusion and Recommendation: The overall level of quality of nursing service was fair in
Tercha hospital and critical in Gessa hospital. Nurses should be trained, medical equipment’s need
to be supplied. Moreover, regular supervision should be conducted.
