Factors Affecting Quality Documentation in Labour among Midwives at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Background Information: Midwives have posed varying knowledge and practice levels of quality midwifery documentation due to a number of factors. Quality midwifery documentation shows care given to two lives whose interests could be in conflict. Objective: The study sought to determine the factors affecting the quality of documentation in labour among midwives at Kenyatta National Hospital labour ward. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study among 51 consenting midwives selected using a simple random sampling technique. Data was collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire. Ethical approval was sought. Results: Most of the midwives demonstrated excellent knowledge on quality midwifery documentation. However, only 51% practised quality midwifery documentation with 21.4% making entries ahead of time, 17.4% documenting for colleagues and 13.7% documenting only normal labour. This was attributed to insufficient time (86.3%), high patient-to-midwife ratio (92.2%) and understaffing (86.3%). In conclusion, several factors affected the quality of documentation among midwives.