Knowledge, Attitude And Practicesof Nurses In Promoting Antenatalphysicalexercises In Kakamega County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Antenatal physical exercises have proven to be beneficial. Less than 50% of pregnant

women worldwide meet exercise recommendations. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of

deliveries in Kakamega County are conducted by a skilled provider (Nurse/midwife) and

occur in tier 2 and 3 health facilities. Maternal mortality in Kakamega County is

316:100,000 live births. The main objective of the study was to determine

Nurses’/midwives' knowledge, attitude and practice in promoting antenatal physical

exercises in tiers 2 and 3 health facilities in Kakamega County. The researcher

hypothesized that there would be no significant differences in knowledge levels of Nurses,

their attitude and practices in tier 2 and 3 health facilities in Kakamega County as regards

antenatal physical exercises. It is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to

beyond zero campaign by the first lady of Kenya. A descriptive, cross-sectional study

design was used with mixed methods. Data was collected using a questionnaire and an

observation checklist. Multi-stage sampling was used. Purposive method (the only tier 3

Public County hospital) and systematic sampling was used to select the study sites (the tier

2 Sub-county public hospitals and private hospital). Stratified proportionate probability

sampling method was used to select the 209 nurses’/midwives. Data was organized using

Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS version 25.0) and analyzed using

descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviations. Hypothesis

was tested using ANOVA. The results showed that Nurses had limited knowledge164

(78.9%), good attitudes 202 (98.1%) and poor practices, 1/5 themes (20%) according to

Blooms cut of points in terms of promoting antenatal physical exercises. On knowledge,

masters group had the least mean of 17.67, SD=1.53 and CI=13.9-21.5 while others group

had the highest mean of 19.5, SD=6.24 and CI=9.6-29.4. There was no significant

difference in knowledge among Nurses P=0.784,np2=0.05),attitudes were different at

(P=