Determinants of healthcare providers’ confidence in their clinical skills to deliver quality obstetric and newborn care in Uganda and Zambia

Table 2 Average confidence, knowledge, and scope of practice scores across maternal healthcare provider cadres in Uganda and Zambia, N = 574

Qualification	Confidence	Knowledge	Scope of practice
Nurse assistant^a (mean ± SD)	0.46 (0.22)	0.39 (0.09)	0.48 (0.16)
Enrolled nurse^b (mean ± SD)	0.65 (0.20)	0.51 (0.10)	0.50 (0.21)
Enrolled midwife^c (mean ± SD)	0.76 (0.15)	0.57 (0.12)	0.64 (0.20)
Registered nurse^d (mean ± SD)	0.67 (0.21)	0.59 (0.14)	0.45 (0.27)
Registered midwife^e (mean ± SD)	0.74 (0.18)	0.59 (0.08)	0.63 (0.26)
Clinical officer^f (mean ± SD)	0.64 (0.25)	0.53 (0.12)	0.43 (0.25)
Doctor^g (mean ± SD)	0.89 (0.14)	0.69 (0.10)	0.74 (0.23)
Average (N = 574)	0.71 (0.20)	0.56 (0.12)	0.57 (0.24)

Maternal healthcare providers are those clinicians who were directly involved in the provision of obstetric and newborn care such as delivery, antenatal care, and postnatal care. Confidence was measured by giving one point that providers rated themselves as ‘very confident’ in performing the clinical tasks. Knowledge was measured by summing all the correct answers on the 60-questionnaire test. Scope of practice was measured by assigning one point per clinical tasks that was performed in the past 3 months. All three scores were converted into average out of 100. ^aNurse assistants are trained for about 6 months and exist only in Uganda. ^bEnrolled nurses and ^cenrolled midwives are trained for 2–3 years. Enrolled nurses are similar to licensed practical nurses in the United States. ^dRegistered nurses and ^eregistered midwives receive medical training for 3 to 4.5 years. ^fClinical officers receive 3 years of training. ^gDoctors are typically trained for 5 to 7 years. Provider qualification can vary by country

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