The challenge of child mortality between the ages of 0 and 5 years has extensively increased over the past few years. Furthermore, the ever-evolving and complex consequences of ineffective monitoring of children’s growth and development have been identified as one of the reasons for this increase in child mortality. The Road-to-Health Chart was developed and redesigned for use by child nurses and midwives to monitor children’s growth and development. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the midwives at community healthcare centres in the Nelson Mandela Bay area had the necessary knowledge to utilise the Road-to-Health Chart effectively. Permission to conduct the study was sought from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, the Department of Health and the participants. A quantitative, non-experimental descriptive survey was used in this research. The population consisted of all the midwives working in the Midwife Obstetric Unit and community healthcare centres within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal area. The sample was extracted from the targeted population but from willing participants that met the inclusion criteria. The research data-collection method was a self-developed questionnaire with closed-ended statements to measure the knowledge of how effectively the midwives in the Nelson Mandela Bay area were using the RTHC. The researcher ensured the validity of the questionnaire by focusing on the instrument’s validity, construct validity, content validity and face validity. Ethical considerations, including permission, informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, were adhered to. The most significant findings showed that midwives at CHCs and MOUs in the Nelson Mandel Bay area were knowledgeable about the importance of the RTHC to the mother and child and the use of the RTHC. These findings may assist in the identification of measures to enhance the knowledge of midwives about the use of the RTHC thus ultimately facilitating the use of the RTHC by mothers as intended.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:29733 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Dumisani-Ndlovu, Sidumisile Charity, Sonti, Balandeli S I, James, S |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Heatlth Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MCur |
| Format | xii, 121, 6 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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