Knowledge, attitude and performance of IMNCI trained nursing personnel: an evaluative survey.

Objective: A cross-sectional survey of nursing personnel's knowledge, attitude and their consultations with sick children under 5 y of age, at specified levels of health care in terms of IMNCI guidelines, was conducted at six community health centers (CHC) of a selected district of Haryana, India.

Methods: Total enumeration technique was used to assess knowledge and attitude of 183 IMNCI trained nursing personnel towards the training programme using a pretested structured questionnaire. Total 236 consultations of sick children presenting to the facilities made by conveniently selected 65 nursing personnel were also observed.

Results: Majority of nursing personnel had good knowledge 94 (51.4 %) and excellent attitude 98 (53.55 %) scores related to IMNCI programme. Nursing personnel performed best in assessing sick children (2 mo-5 y) in areas of fever (89.7 %, CI 96.9-79.7), cough (89.2 %, CI 96.7-81.6), and identifying treatment (89.1 %, CI 96.7-83.7). Their performance in identifying classifications related to diarrhea (74.1 %, CI 84.7-62.8), malnutrition (67.2 %, CI 78.6-59.0), anemia (77.3 %, CI 87.5-70.0), immunization (78.9 % CI 88.8-71.8) and feeding problem (75.9 %, CI 86.3-66.9) was relatively less. Similarly, in assessing young infants (0-2 mo) performance of nursing personnel was best in the areas of possible serious bacterial infection (PSBI) (88.1 %, CI 99.1-87.3), and identifying the treatment (86.7 %, CI 94.9-80.2) and low in dehydration (70.8 %, CI81.8-52.6), feeding problem (50.5 %, CI 62.7-40.9), feeding assessment (50.6 %, CI 62.8-39.8), and immunization (70 %, CI 81.1-61.2).

Conclusions: IMNCI trained nursing personnel have good knowledge and attitude towards child care and their performance can be improved further with drills, exercises and supervised practices.