Exploring the role of health center nurses in early detection of non-communicable diseases in Kicukiro District, Rwanda

Abstract

Introduction and background: Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) are becoming a major public health problem, which occupies more than 60% of total deaths globally. Early detection can help to reduce costly treatment at an advanced stage. Nurses, who are the frontline workforce, play a big role in managing NCDs as caregivers, educators, managers and researchers. The Ministry of Health has put in place a program that aims to do earlier detection of NCDs, at least once a year for eligible women and men. Objectives: The main objective was to explore the involvement of health center nurses in in the national program of NCDs checkup. Specific objectives of the study were (1) to describe the knowledge of nurses on NCDs and checkup program for NCDs, (2) to describe the role of nurses in use of forms for NCDs checkup, and (3) to identify the challenges of nurses in using forms for NCDs checkup, as part of the implementation of the program for early detection of NCDs at health centers. Methodology: This study was conducted in one of the four districts in Kigali City. A quantitative approach and an observational, descriptive design were adopted to conduct this study. The sampling method was stratified sampling. The study was done in 42 among 68 nurses from four health centers of the district that were randomly selected. Data collection used a selfreport questionnaire given to nurses who accepted to participate voluntarily in the study. Descriptive data were entered into the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19, and then analyzed using Pearson Chi-square at a level of 95% of confidence interval, to determine association between variables, after; they were presented in tables as frequency and percentages. The Results: The results demonstrated that a good number of nurses have good knowledge of NCDs with more than 80% and use forms for NCDs checkup by 64.3% of nurses. Knowledge was associated with the use of checkup forms (p-value .000), and the level of education, experience and services allocation were associated with the use of checkup forms (p-value. 037 at 95%CI, .005 and .004 at 95% CI respectively). However, nurses reported challenges of low staff, lack of training and low equipment and this was associated with the use of checkup forms v (P-value .012). There was also an association between services and receiving guidelines for NCDs and use of forms for NCDs checkup (p-value .006 and .003 at 95% CI). Conclusion: knowledge, time of receiving checkup forms and allocated services were found to influence the use of forms for NCDs checkup. The level of education and experience were also influencing the frequency of using forms NCDs checkup. Nurses have an important role in early detection of NCDs and need to be empowered with a favorable working environment in health centers.