Essential newborn care practice and associated factors among health care providers in Northeast Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Globally, 2.7 million children die during the neonatal period annually. Ethiopia is one of the ten countries with the highest number of neonatal deaths. The practice of poor essential newborn care contributes to the problem. Hence the study was conducted to assess the essential newborn care practice and associated factors among health care providers from selected health facilities in Northeast Ethiopia. METHODS: Facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among health care providers working in selected health facilities in Northeast Ethiopia from February-25 to March-25, 2019. Data were collected by a pre-tested questionnaire and an observational checklist. Then data were edited into Epi-data-7.2.0.1 and analyzed by using SPSS-25 software. The degree of association was assessed using binary logistic regression analysis. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 256 health care providers were included in the study. Overall, 62.9% (95%CI: 57.0–68.8%), and 73.8% (95%CI: 68.4–79.2%) of the health care providers had adequate knowledge and good practice on essential newborn care activities, respectively. The presence of supportive supervision (AOR = 2.09, 95%CI = 1.07–4.11), the interest of health care providers to work at delivery room (AOR = 1.97, 95%CI = 1.00–3.88), and availability of vitamin-K (AOR = 4.81, 95%CI = 1.07–21.64) were significantly associated with essential newborn care practices. CONCLUSIONS: A significant number of health care providers had inadequate knowledge and poor practice of essential newborn care. Availability of vitamin-K, the interest of the health care providers to work in the delivery room and the presence of supportive supervision were the factors affecting essential newborn care practice. Hence, giving in-service training, supportive supervision, and providing supplies should be strengthened to enhance essential newborn care activities. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13690-021-00613-4.