Assessment of knowledge and practical skills among integrated management of neonatal and childhood illness program healthcare personnel in primary healthcare centers

Abstract

Background: Integrated management of neonate and childhood illness (IMNCI) guidelines are a simplified system of diagnosis and treatment design for the use by the health workers with limited training. The IMNCI aims to reduce death and illness and to promote growth and development among children under 5 years of age and target acute causes of childhood death. Objectives: To study the knowledge and performance of doctors and healthcare workers about IMNCI program and assess the adherence of doctors and healthcare workers to IMNCI guidelines for managing childhood disease. Materials and Methods: The study is a cross-sectional study conducted in primary healthcare centers in Babylon Governorate from February to May 2019 on 130 healthcare personnel using a predesignated semi-structured questionnaire including sociodemographic characteristics and knowledge and practice domains about IMNCI. Results: The mean age of participants was 37.8 ± 10 years and the age category of ≥40 years was the most prevalent (40.8%). While 31.5% aged 20-29 years of age, 27.7% aged 30-39 years of age. The female gender was more dominant among the study sample as 112 (90.8%) of them were females compared to 18 (9.2%) males. Regarding occupation of the study sample, 28.5% of them were family medicine specialists, 27.7% paramedical staff, 23.8% graduate doctors, and 20% were general practitioners. 62% had serving more than 1-10 years while <7.7% had serving <1 year. 76.2% had training in IMNCI while 23.8% without IMNCI training. 56% of total study sample had fair knowledge level, 37% had poor knowledge level, while 7% only had good knowledge. More than 28% had fair practice while 72% had poor practice. Conclusion: This study showed that the majority of healthcare personnel had fair knowledge about IMNCI while practical skills were poor.