Home » District Showcases Success in Improved Skilled Birth Attendance at Nurses Conference
A presentation on the increase in improved skilled birth attendance from 15 percent in 2010 to 43 percent in 2011 in Butere district, constituted part of the agenda at the recently concluded National Nurses Association of Kenya Conference. The presentation on the project to improve skilled birth attendance is an initiative of the GIZ Health Sector Programme in Kenya. Skilled birth attendance indicators had been deteriorating from 24 percent in the year 2006 to as low as 15 percent in 2010.
The presentation on skilled birth attendance made by Sister Jairo Songa, a nurse in the district, touched on efforts made by healthcare providers, District Health Management Teams and partners to improve skilled birth attendance in Butere district.
An assessment done at the start of the project revealed the demand and supply side factors hindering uptake of skilled birth attendance services. To reverse the trends of the indicators the District Health Management Team carried out a number of initiatives including: Increasing number of facilities offering 24-hour services (three more facilities); social mobilization of communities to uptake facility delivery services; setting up of three more health facilities to serve communities that were placed far away from health facilities; providing skills updates to nursing officers mainly through on-job-training; and encouraging facilities to offer meals to mothers after delivery. This led to improved results as indicated earlier.
The German Development Cooperation through GIZ Health Sector Programme, supported the district by providing reproductive health equipment to selected facilities; mentoring selected facilities to improve quality of reproductive health services; and training the district health management team on effective management.
The focus of the National Nurses Association of Kenya (NNAK) is to promote professional excellence among its members. The association therefore requires nursing officers to have expert knowledge and engage in nursing research in order to succeed in many of the new nursing roles as well as form the basis for traditional nursing care as the country strives to achieve vision 2030. It is against this background that this year’s NNAK conference was held in Kagumo Teachers Training College in Nyeri from October 5th to 7th, 2011.
The event drew nurses from many districts in the country including GIZ focal districts. The conference theme ‘Towards Vision 2030: The role of the nurse’ touched on an area which is top on national, social, political and economic agenda. This year’s conference aimed to recognize and invest in nursing services and prudent management of health facilities which have seriously been hit by poor governance and corruption as pointed out by Kenya Anti-corruption Commission.
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