The nurses and midwives had poor knowledge of some components of essential newborn care in the study area. The type of profession (, ), educational level (, ), interest to work in delivery room (, ), and presence of guidelines (, ) were the factors significantly associated with having knowledge of essential newborn care. Among them, 57.9% of participants had good knowledge of essential newborn care. A total of 218 nurses and midwives were participated in the study. Statistical significance of variables was declared as a, and strength of association was adjusted odds ratio at 95% confidence interval in the final model. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were done.
The collected data were entered into Epi data 3.02 and exported to statistical software for social sciences version 22 for analysis. All 218 nurses and midwives who were working in the delivery unit from selected facilities were included in the study. Data were collected by using pretested questionnaire, and 36 public health facilities were selected after stratifying them based on their level of service and number of nurses and midwives working in maternal health-care team. Institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from March to April 2019. Therefore, this study is aimed at assessing knowledge of essential newborn care and associated factors among nurses and midwives working in maternal health case team at public health facilities of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia, 2019. In spite of its essentiality, most health-care professionals do not know and follow the World Health Organization recommendation. Knowledge of essential newborn care and proper practice is important for the survival, growth, and development of a newborn.