Abstract:
Background: Climate change is recognized as a global public health problem. Literature
shows that yearly, millions of neonatal deaths are attributable to climate change’s
consequences worldwide. Objective: This study aimed to assess nurses’ perceptions and their
position towards actions leading on the reduction of climate change associated neonatal health
risks at selected hospitals in Kigali” Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional design was used.
A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 184 out of 340 nurses and midwives
working in maternity, pediatrics and neonatology units of the four selected hospitals in Kigali.
The self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 5th March to 31st May 2019.
Using SPSS version 23, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data.
Results: 62.1% of participants were females, 60.5% nurses, 55.4% with an advanced diploma
and 57.6% working in referral hospitals. 57.1% had low awareness of climate change; the main
source of awareness was mass media (44.1%) and over 60% had negative perceptions of
potential neonatal health risks associated with climate change. Henceforward, the majority
(72.9%) was in a weak position towards actions leading on reduction of climate change
associated neonatal health risks.75.0% of those who had personal cars had no intention to walk,
bike or use public transport. High educational level was strongly associated with high-level
awareness and positive perceptions of potential neonatal health risks associated with climate
change (p < 0.05).Then, a positive correlation between strong awareness, positive perceptions
and strong position to climate action was found, (r= 0.204, p<0.05).Conclusion: There is lowlevel awareness of climate change; negative perceptions of climate change’s associated
potential neonatal health risks and weak position towards actions leading to reduction of
climate change associated neonatal health risks among nurses and midwives from selected
hospitals in Kigali. Offering in-service training and integrating climate change and health
nursing curriculum can help increase awareness and climate action among Rwandan nurses and
midwives
