Inter-professional collaboration and associated factors among nurses and physicians in specialized public hospitals, the northwest, Ethiopia: mixed method multi-centered cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to investigate inter-professional collaboration and associated factors among nurses and physicians working in referral and teaching hospitals in the Northwest and Ethiopia in 2022. METHOD: This study used a concurrent (quantitative cross-sectional and phenomenological qualitative) design from September to October 2022. A structured, self-administered nurse-physician collaborative scale questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from 279 nurses and 87 physicians. A simple random sampling technique was used to select participants. The magnitude of the association was measured using the odds ratio at a 95% confidence interval and was statistically significant at a p-value less than 0.05 using binary logistic regression analysis. Qualitative data were collected from nine key informants via focused interviews or semi-structured in-depth interviews and analyzed using ATLAS.ti version 7.0.7 software via narratives using the thematic analysis method. RESULT: According to the study's findings, a greater number (43.4%) of the respondents had ineffective collaboration during their professional activities. In the final model of multivariable analysis, unsatisfactory organizational support, poor professional support, and poor interpersonal support were all independently associated with ineffective collaboration. The qualitative findings identified poor communication, a lack of professionalism, and failure to adhere to professional duties as barriers to nurse-physician collaboration. CONCLUSION: In this study, nurse-physician collaboration was less than expected; thus, the large number of participants had ineffective collaborations. Potential predictors of decreased effective nurse-physician collaboration included dissatisfaction with organizational support, poor professional support, and poor interpersonal support. This outcome emphasizes the importance of improving nurse-physician collaboration by enhancing organizational, professional, and interpersonal factors to form effective collaborative practice. The qualitative finding supports the quantitative study, which showed ineffective collaboration. The authors recommended that there is a need to empower interprofessional collaboration among nurses and physicians through the creation of a conducive and safe working environment.

Medication administration error and contributing factors among pediatric inpatient in public hospitals of Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Medication administration error is a medication error that occurs while administering a medication to a patient. A variety of factors make pediatrics more susceptible to medication errors and its consequences. In low-income countries, like Ethiopia, there is no sufficient evidence regarding medication administration error among pediatrics. The aim of this study is, therefore, to determine the magnitude and factors associated with medication administration error among pediatric population. METHODS: A prospective observational based cross sectional study design was conducted from January to April 2017. Data collection was done using pre-tested structured questionnaire and blind observation checklist to health professionals in charge of administering selected medications. A total of 1282 medication administrations were obtained using single population proportion formula from patients in the selected public hospitals and the samples were selected using multistage sampling technique. Multivariable logistic regression using odds ratio and 95% confidence interval was used to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Variables with p-value < 0.05 were considered as independent factors for medication administration error. RESULT: A total of 1251 medication administrations were observed from 1251 patients. The occurrence of medication administration error was 62.7% with 95% CI (59.6%, 65.0%), wrong dose being the most common type of medication administration error with an occurrence rate of 53.7%. Medications administered for pediatric patients less than 1 month age, administered by bachelor degree holder health professionals, prepared in facilities without medication preparation room, prepared in facilities without medication administration guide and administer for patients who have two or more prescribed medications were more likely to have medication administration error than their counterparts with AOR (95% CI) of 7.54(2.20-25.86), 1.52 (1.07-2.17), 13.45 (8.59-21.06), 4.11 (2.89-5.85), and 2.42 (1.62-3.61), respectively. CONCLUSION: This study has revealed that there is high occurrence of medication administration error among pediatric inpatients in public hospitals of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.. Age of patients, educational level of medication administrators, availability of the medication preparation room and guide, and the number of medications given per single patient were statistically significant factors associated with occurrence of medication administration error.

Retraction Note to: Knowledge, practice and associated factors of newborn care among postnatal mothers at health centers, Bahir Dar City, Northwestern Ethiopia, 2016.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Knowledge, practice and associated factors of newborn care among postnatal mothers at health centers, Bahir Dar City, Northwestern Ethiopia, 2016.

OBJECTIVE: Most neonatal deaths occur in low income and middle-income countries and about half of the deaths occur at home. It is estimated that about 75% of neonatal deaths could be avoided with simple, low-cost tools that already exist such as antibiotics for pneumonia and sepsis, sterile blades to cut the umbilical cords using knit caps and kangaroo care to keep babies warm. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of newborn care among postnatal mothers at Bahir Dar, Ethiopia 2016. An institutional based cross-sectional study design was used. The sample size was calculated by using a single population proportion formula. The total sample size was 422. The collected data was coded and entered to Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported and analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Both descriptive and multivariate logistic regression was performed. RESULT: A total of 414 postnatal mothers were interviewed with a response rate of 98.1%, among them 55.3% had good knowledge and 60.6% had a good practice of newborn care. Age of the mother, occupation, the month of pregnancy at first ANC visits, overall knowledge and attitude level was found to have a significant association with newborn care practice.

Prevalence of needle stick injury and its associated factors among nurses working in public hospitals of Dessie town, Northeast Ethiopia, 2016.

OBJECTIVE: Nurses are exposed to dangerous and deadly blood borne pathogens through contaminated needle stick injuries. This study was designed to assess prevalence of needle stick injury and its associated factors among nurses working in hospitals. Institution-based cross-sectional study design was used among 258 randomly selected nurses. Collected data was entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and transferred to SPSS Version 20.0 for analysis. The degree of variables were assessed using adjusted odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval with P value (< 0.05). RESULTS: Eighty-nine (34.5%) nurses self-reported receiving a needle stick injury in the previous 12 months. Work experience, working hour, personal protective, infection prevention guide line utilization and infection prevention training were significantly associated to needle stick injury. CONCLUSIONS: The needle stick injury in this study area was prevalent. The contributing factors to the injury were duration of working hours, experience, use of personal protective equipment and training.

Assessment of risky sexual behavior and practice among Aksum University students, Shire Campus, Shire Town, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2017.

OBJECTIVE: Having sex at early age, having multiple sexual partners, having sex while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and unprotected sexual behaviors are the common characteristics of risky sexual behavior which increases risk of individuals to sexuality and reproductive health problems. Risky sexual behavior is the most common problem in adolescents and young adults which may expose individuals for permanent social, economical, psychological and physical problem. So that this study focus on assessment of risk sexual behavior using institution based cross-sectional study design on 287 randomly selected subjects among Aksum University students. RESULTS: Almost 60% students reported to have ever had sexual activity. Of which 86 (83.5%) and 112 (64.4%) reported having inconsistent condom use and multiple sexual partners respectively. Even though more than half of first sexual intercourse (61.5%) starts due to their desire but still peer pressure and alcohol have significant effect. Similarly the study indicated that a significant segment of students have risk sexual behaviors which increase individuals' risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS. Unless appropriate age and institutional targeted interventions exist, certain behaviors can place the university students at greater risk of HIV infection and sexually transmitted disease.

The magnitude of anemia and associated factors among pregnant women attending public institutions of Shire Town, Shire, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, 2018.

OBJECTIVE: Anemia is a widespread health problem among pregnant women causing maternal/infant morbidity and mortality mainly in low-income countries. Understanding of the magnitude of anemia and related socio-demographic variables in a specific setting would help scale-up preventive and therapeutic measures in a locality. So that this study focuses on the magnitude of anemia and its associated factor among pregnant women attending antenatal care in public hospitals of shire town and using institution based cross-sectional study design on 480 randomly selected study subjects. RESULT: The overall prevalence of anemia was 16.3%. Majority of the participants (52%) have mild anemia (10-10.9 gm/dl). Pregnant mothers with human immunodeficiency virus, intestinal parasitic infection and having lower inter-pregnancy gap were significant predictors of anemia. Preventing infection of the mother during pregnancy and making the gap between pregnancies are necessary.

Consistency of Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) in Shire Governmental Health Institution in 2017.

OBJECTIVE: In an effort to reduce infant mortality and morbidity, the World Health Organization and other technical partners developed the Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness (IMNCI). This study focuses on assessment of consistency and completeness of integrated management of neonatal and child hood illness in primary health care units. RESULTS: A total of 384 cases were taken from 3562 cases both from young infant registration (under-2 month old) and child registration (2 months-5 year old). Out of 384 cases, 241 (62.8%) cases were correctly classified and 143 (37.2%) were incorrect classifications. Similarly 164 (42.7%) cases were treated correctly where as 220 (57.3%) treated incorrectly. Only 95 (24.7%) cases have given appropriate appointments where as 289 (75.3%) cases were appointed incorrectly. The overall consistency of IMNCI management is poor. Unless continuous follow up of and training was given, children are not treated as expected. More over using electronic method of IMNCI may alleviate the problem.