Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Health Professionals working at Maternal Health Units on Caring, Respectful and Compassionate health service, Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Finfinne, Oromia Region, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: - Compassion, Respectful and Caring (CRC) behaviour is serving patients being ethical, living the professional oath, and being a model for young professionals and medical students. Currently in Ethiopia there is a movement that requires champions who identify with their profession and take pride by helping people. Maternal health (MH) is the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period and maternal health care services (MHCS) are antenatal care (ANC), delivery care and postnatal care (PNC) services. MH has been becoming a global concern because the lives of millions of women in reproductive age can be saved through MHCS. Objective:- To assess knowledge, attitude and practice of CRC among Health Professionals working at Maternal Health Units of public health facilities, Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Finfinne. Methods: -This study was conducted from August 13 up to September 2/2018, among health professionals working at maternal health service units of public health facilities, Oromia Special Zone Surrounding Finfinne. Facility based Cross-sectional study design was employed by using structured self-administered questionnaire with yes or no question to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of health professionals toward Compassion, Respectful and Caring. A total health professional in maternal health service units is 138. Data was entered to EpiData version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 23 software for analysis. Appropriate descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, percentage and standard deviation) was used to determine and present the results. Result: - 138 health professionals participated in this study. The mean ±SD score of health professionals knowledge was 1.49±.19, attitude 3.88±.39, and practice was 1.28±.07.69.49% of health professionals had a good knowledge about CRC; 55.80% of health professionals had unfavorable attitude toward CRC and 76.09% of health professionals showed a poor practice in this regard. Conclusion and Recommendation: In this study about two third of health professionals had good knowledge about CRC. Over half of health professionals had unfavorable attitude toward CRC and more than three fourth of health professionals had poor practice on CRC. Therefor; these should be addressed in training programs, by assigning a responsible body (CRC focal person, CRC committee, or CRC ambassador) in each health facility for close and continuous supportive supervision.