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bioRxiv · 10.1101/517326

Competency assessment of the medical interns and nurses and prevailing practices to provide family planning services in teaching hospitals in three states of India.

Gupta, M.·Verma, M.·Kaur, K.·Iyengar, K. S.·Singh, T.·Singh, A.
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Abstract

ObjectivesThe objectives of the study was to assess the knowledge and skills of medical interns and nurses regarding family planning (FP) services, and document the prevailing FP practices in the teaching hospitals in India.\n\nStudy DesignA cross-sectional study was conducted in three states (Delhi, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra) of India, among randomly selected 163 participants, including medical interns (n=81) and in-service nurses (n=82), during 2017. Semi-structured, pre-tested interview schedule, was used to assess the knowledge and status of training received; and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) based checklist was used to assess the skills.\n\nResultsAbout 60% of the interns and 48% of the nurses knew more than five contraceptives that could be offered to the clients. About 22% (11.1% interns and 33.3% nurses) respondents believed that contraceptives should not be given to a married woman coming alone, and 31.9% (17.3% interns and 46.3% nurses) respondents reported that it was illegal to provide contraceptives to unmarried people. Nearly 43.3% interns and 69.5% nurses refused to demonstrate intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD) insertion in the dummy uterus as per OSCE, and among those who did, 12.3% interns and 18.3% nurses had failed. About 63% interns and 63.4% of nurses had observed IUCD insertion, and 12.3% interns and 17.1% had performed IUCD insertion, during their training.\n\nConclusionsKnowledge and skills of interns and nurses regarding FP services were only partial. The medical training during graduation or internship, and during the job, was found to be inadequate to provide quality FP services.\n\nImplicationsThe partial knowledge and skills of medical interns and nurses regarding family planning services indicated inadequate training received, and substandard quality of services rendered by them, which may put the universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services and rights in the developing countries at risk.

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Gupta, M., Verma, M., Kaur, K., Iyengar, K. S., Singh, T., Singh, A.. 2019-01-10. Competency assessment of the medical interns and nurses and prevailing practices to provide family planning services in teaching hospitals in three states of India.. https://doi.org/10.1101/517326

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