Introduction: Maternal mortality remains a major health concern in Sub-Saharan Africa
and Kenya in particular. Providing quality maternal health care has the
potential of preventing over 75% of maternal deaths. The quality of maternal
health care requires the utilization of maternal health care quality standards. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the
nurse-midwives knowledge and attitude toward the use of maternal health care quality standards. Methodology: This
study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey carried out at Embu and
Meru teaching and referral hospitals in Kenya, between August and December
2021. Eighty-five nurse-midwives working in the maternity unit participated in
the study. Data was collected using a self-administered semi-structured
questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 27.0. Pearson’s correlation
coefficient and Chi-square at Alpha level of 0.05 were used to test the
relationship between the variables which were the nurse-midwives knowledge,
attitude, and use of the quality standards. Result: Most (84.7%, n = 72)
nurse-midwives were female and 44.7% (n = 38) were aged 20 - 29 years. Majority
(64.7%, n = 55) were diploma holders and almost half (44.7%, n = 38) had practiced for 1 - 9 years. The
average score for knowledge was 5.0 with 69.4% (n = 59) having a score of
<7. Most nurse midwives (88.2%, n = 75) supported the use of the standards
even though only 67.1% (n = 57) indicated that they use them. The support for
the standards is significantly related to the gender of the respondents and
their duration in
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