NOTABLE skills gaps exist across professional groups conducting ultrasound services in relation to pregnancy and childbirth, with about 51 percent of doctors and 48.8 per cent of midwives and nurses lacking skills or having only limited skills in its essentials, a recently published research finding asserts.

The majority of health professionals acknowledge the importance of obstetric ultrasound as making a significant contribution to the clinical management of pregnancy, on the basis of a study titled “Health professionals’ experiences and views on obstetric ultrasound in Tanzania,” a cross-sectional study published in the research abstracts volume at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH):’ From Data to Impact.’

It says that 82 per cent of doctors and 81 per cent of midwives and nurses acknowledged the importance of obstetric ultrasound, regarded as essential for determining gestational age, identifying singleton or multiple pregnancies, locating the placenta, detecting congenital anomalies, along with monitoring fetal growth and pregnancy-related complications.

This has a crucial role in improving the management of pregnancy, where the study was designed to examine health professionals’ views on various aspects of obstetric ultrasound in Tanzania, with particular focus on their skills in performing ultrasound examinations.

They also dwelt on factors that could improve access to the technique, along with utilisation of obstetric ultrasound in clinical settings, with the data collected in November and December of 2017 using a questionnaire developed from preliminary findings of qualitative research conducted under the cross-country ultrasound (CROCUS) study, the summary indicates.

A total of 17 health facilities in five urban and semi-urban municipalities in Dar es Salaam region were involved, interviewing 636 health professionals—307 doctors and 329 midwives and nurses, with skills deficiencies identified in measuring cervical length, assessing the fetal four-chamber heart view, the aorta and pulmonary artery, as well as in Doppler measurements including the umbilical artery.

Doctors, compared to midwives and nurses, were more likely to agree or strongly agree that ultrasound services would improve with the availability of more machines, better-quality equipment, increased training for health professionals currently conducting ultrasound examinations, and the training of more doctors in ultrasound use, it affirmed.

The researchers recommend that improving the provision of obstetric ultrasound services requires increased access to high-quality ultrasound machines, alongside strengthened training for health professionals.

In addition, increasing the number of doctors trained in ultrasound would further enhance access to and utilisation of obstetric ultrasound services in maternal healthcare, it says, underscoring the importance of providing midwives with training in basic ultrasound techniques. 

The research involved nine departments and institutions, including the Department of Clinical Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Umeå University in Sweden; the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam.

Other participating institutions were the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Aga Khan University in Dar es Salaam; the Judith Lumley Centre, the School of Nursing and Midwifery at La Trobe University in the Australian University of Melbourne, the Department of Nursing at Umeå University, the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health and Reproductive Health at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, the School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Rwanda in Kigali, and the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at Hanoi Medical University of Vietnam, the abstract indicated.