Quality of care for neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care units in central Ethiopia

Abstract

Neonatal and maternal deaths are attributable to low quality of care, however, the deaths are preventable. In Ethiopia, the low neonatal survival rate contributes to more than 56% of under-5 deaths. The purpose of the study was to assess the quality of care for neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in order to develop strategies to strengthen the quality of NICU care services. The study employed a parallel mixed methods design and was conducted in six NICUs of public hospitals in Central Ethiopia. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data was undertaken using ATLAS.ti 6.2. and quantitative data analysis was undertaken using SPSS Windows version 23. After separate analysis, the quantitative and qualitative results were integrated to address the research purpose.