The Training needs of registered midwives in two Comprehensive Emergency Obstetrics and Neonatal Care facilities in Eswatini

Abstract Background Emergency obstetrics and newborn care training improves the knowledge and skills of healthcare professionals. However, there is limited evidence on training programs that had been informed by training needs analysis. The aim of the study was to determine training needs of registered midwives to inform a training program. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from N=202 midwives who worked at two comprehensive emergency obstetrics and neonatal care hospitals. Simple random sampling was used to select respondents. Ethics approval was obtained before conducting the study. Data were collected from November 2023 to January 2024 using an adapted self-administered Hennessy Hicks Training Needs Questionnaire. SPSS version 29 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics, means and standard deviations were calculated. The differences between task importance and task performance were determined for each of the measured items. A paired sample t-test was used to establish the significance of the differences between each of the five category pairs with p=<.05. Results The mean age of the 202 respondents was 38.06±6.9 years. The midwives predominantly fell into the age group 40–44 years (n=53, 22.2%), and they had an average of 5–9 years of work experience (n=75, 37.1%). Training needs were perceived for all the measured items. The research/ audit category emerged as the highest (M=2.23±1.05) training need, followed by clinical (1.94±0.55), administrative (1.70±1.03), communication (1.57±0.79) and supervisory tasks (1.14±0.76). Differences between each of the five category pairs were statistically significant with p=<.05. The highest specific training need was newborn resuscitation (n= 61, 30.2%). Conclusion The study highlights the need for training on research and clinical tasks. Recommendation Tailor training according to the identified needs for the effective management of emergency obstetrics and newborn complications.