Coaching Third-year Certificate Midwives to Improve Partograph Skills: A Study of a Nurses and Midwives Training School in Western Uganda

Background: Maternal and neonatal deaths’ resulting from obstructed and prolonged labor is still a major challenge in the developing countries. These complications can be prevented if a partograph is used as a labor monitoring tool. Teaching is more of theoretical which has affected partograph skill acquisition. Coaching as a teaching strategy may be helpful in advancing the development of learners’ skills. This study explored the effectiveness of coaching towards improving skill acquisition of certificate midwives in labor monitoring using partograph. Benner’s theoretical model from novice to expert guided the study. Methodology: The study employed an interventional quasi-experimental design. Census sampling was used to select the participants. Data was collected from third-year certificate midwives using scenarios and a checklist on partograph parameters. A paired t-test was used to determine the difference between pre-test and post-test students’ scores. Results: The findings indicated that before the implementation of coaching, there was inadequate skills in almost all parameters of using partograph among the third-year certificate midwives in monitoring labor. Posttest intervention indicated that there was statistically significant (P=0.000) improvement in the skill of using a partograph in monitoring labor after coaching. Conclusion: Coaching as a teaching strategy showed a significant advancement in skill acquisition of monitoring labor using a partograph among the third-year certificate midwives. This study recommends that coaching may be used as an alternative strategy in the midwifery training program to enhance skill acquisition on partograph use.