How nurses at a state health clinic in Namibia work to reduce diarrheal diseases among children under five years of age. : - How do they work preventive and what obstacles are they facing? -

Abstract: Background: Diarrheal diseases are one of the leading causes in the world that leads to mortality for children under the age of five. A very common factor for an undeveloped country’s lower class is that the access to clean water, sanitation, education and the right nutrition for children are lacking. Part of the nurse profession is to prevent and to make sure that the message is being received by the client in order to reduce sickness. Aim: The aim of this study is to find out how nurses at a state health clinic work preventive to reduce diarrheal diseases among children under five years of age and what obstacles nurses are facing in their daily work when giving preventive advice. Method: The method used is qualitative research. In depth interviews were conducted with six nurses that lasted 30-45 min. Result: To prevent diarrheal diseases the nurses at the state clinic are using a national guideline and they give health education. The obstacles they face in their daily work are communication difficulties due to many different ethnical groups and different languages in the country, poverty and sanitation. Many mothers are working or are infected by HIV and do not want to breastfeed. Conclusions: More research should focus on how to give health education to people in society and the connection between nursing education and practice. Preventive work is a relatively cheap way to reduce suffering and make a whole population healthier. Keywords: Communication, Hygiene, Namibia, Nursing, Preventive work Acknowledgements: We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Sida that gave us a scholarship so we were able to make a minor field study in Namibia.