| dc.description.abstract | The study aimed at assessing the management of maternity ward records in rural hospitals; A case study of Tororo General hospital. The Specific Objectives included; to know some of the types of maternity records are managed in Tororo Hospital, to know the advantages of keeping maternity ward records in Tororo hospital, to know the challenges faced by maternity records management in Tororo hospital and to suggest possible measures to the challenges of maternity records management in Tororo hospital.
The study used a descriptive design which involved observing and describing things the way they are without influencing it in any way, where both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used with case study as a strategy. The study employed stratified random sampling and purposive sampling techniques to select the samples. The study used interview and observation methods to obtain data from medical records officers, nurses and mothers from the maternity ward.
The study findings were that a maternity ward is a place or room where expectant mothers give birth and are taken care of, maternity ward records are documents used for monitoring the mothers in the maternity ward, the types of maternity ward records are antenatal care records, delivery records, postnatal records and treatment records among others and maternity ward records are managed and kept in boxes, cupboards, file cabinets and file folders. The study found out that keeping maternity ward records is very important because they help in accountability and many as discussed. The study also found out challenges in managing maternity records as; inadequate and inexperienced or incompetent manpower in the maternity ward, no enough space or room for the records and others And lastly, the study found out solutions to the challenges faced in the management of these records
The study concludes that although the hospital adopted a number of practices in managing maternity ward records such as keeping in boxes and cupboards among others, the challenges in managing maternity ward records such as inadequate staffs, incompetent staffs, incomplete information and manual system of keeping records affect the effectiveness of the hospital, therefore, achievements can be realized through recruiting more staffs who are experienced to handle issues of the mothers in the maternity ward and also equip hospitals with computers that can keep records for longer periods of time.
The study recommends that there should be an improvement in the planning and coordination of hospital maternity wards. | en_US |
