Knowledge of Critical Issues in the Intrapartum Period: a Cross-sectional Study Among Undergraduate Final Year Midwifery Students

BACKGROUND: Dealing with critical issues in the intrapartum period requires comprehensive knowledge and a full understanding of the basic principles and skills involved, as complications during labor and birth occur unexpectedly.. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of critical issues in the intrapartum period among undergraduate final year midwifery students. METHODS: This is a descriptive observational cross-sectional study conducted between February-July 2017. Final year undergraduate midwifery students were recruited from one institution and four public hospitals. The research instrument was a questionnaire designed by the research team. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05 and analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 22. RESULTS: The final study sample consisted of 100 participants. The 36.0% of the students had started their final year internship, with a mean duration of 4.3 months. Only 2% of the participants had obtained a bachelor degree from another department, 76% had attended general high school, 17% had pre-graduate work experience and 48.0% had attended a seminar on critical issues in the intrapartum period. Participants’ final scores ranged from 5% to 90%, with mean value being 49.7% (SD=16.5%). The knowledge score was found to be significantly higher in midwifery students who had started the internship. However, it was not significantly correlated with other educational characteristics. Finally, no significant correlation was observed between knowledge score and age (r= -0.15, p=0.138) or knowledge score and months of internship (r=0.27, p=0.114). CONCLUSION: In the core midwifery curriculum, the design and integration of didactic and clinical courses focusing on emergency management in midwifery practice is considered of paramount importance. However, teachers should provide midwifery students with guidance on independent learning ability and implement effective strategies to enhance students’ self-study skills.