Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Intension of Health Science Students Toward Safe Abortion Care Provision in Debre Markose University, Ethiopia, May 2011
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Date
2011-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Negative attitudes toward abortion among professionals providing abortionservices could be an obstacle even under a law which permits abortion on request. The shortageof health care providers who are willing or trained to perform abortions undermines theprovisions of safe abortion services, by limiting the availability of safe, legal abortion, and hasserious implications for women's access to abortion services and health service planning.
Objective: The aim of this study is to assess knowledge, attitudes and intension of DMU HealthScience student toward safe abortion provision.
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional institution based study was conducted to examineknowledge, attitude and intension of health science students (n=190) to provide safe abortioncare services using pretested standard questionnaire at Debre Markose University.
Result : Respondents were asked whether unsafe abortion is one of the major health problems in their country. Out of all respondents, 94.2% said that it was a major health problem. 65.3%agreed that they are more comfortable with medical abortion than with surgical abortion. Largemajority of respondents 89.0% reported that they were not plan to perform abortion for theirpatients regardless of their reason for terminating a pregnancy.Discussion: More intension to provide medical abortion and surgical abortion in this study mighthave been the perception of students considering that higher magnitude of the problem of unsafeabortion in our country and the need of safe abortion care providers to solve maternal morbidityand mortality from unsafe abortion.
Conclusion and recommendation: Very surprisingly majority of students in this study havewillingness to seek abortion care training. Although it may not be possible or desirable to requireabortion training for every future health care provider separately, making safe abortion caretraining a standard part of the curriculum will open avenues for both future nurses and healthofficer who are in favor of providing safe abortion care services. More important, expanding abortion training in the allied health professions will likely alleviate the abortion provider shortage throughout Ethiopia.
Key word: Attitude, Intension, safe abortion provision, medical abortion, surgical abortion.
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AttitudeSafe abortion provision Medical abortion