THE MEDICO-LEGAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE MIDWIVES EMPLOYED BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES OF IRAN

As basic coordinators between families and the health care units, midwives have important roles in the reproductive health of the community. Being able to prevent any problem in the course of their professional life, they must be aware of the legal aspects of their occupation. Therefore, inorder to determine the knowledge level of the midwives about the proceeding trial for disciplinary violations a cross-sectional study was conducted, in which the data were collected by self-report questionnaires. The sample consisted of 274 midwives including faculty members of nursing & midwifery schools (N=18) and evenly distributed midwives employed in the university hospitals and health centers (N=256). The results of the study showed that the mean knowledge level of the employed midwives was weak. Significant relations were obtained between knowledge of the proceeding trial for different disciplinary violations and the place of employment (on midwifery ethics) and also secondary employment in the private sector (on reproductive healthcare) respectively (P=0.04) and (P=0.031). So, according to the findings only 2.2% of the Midwives had a good knowledge of the proceeding trial for different disciplinary Violations. Therefore it is recommended to revise the syllabus of the course "Midwifery History, Ethics and Regulations" in order to include topics of the kind, discussed in this study and enhance the level of medico-legal knowledge of the midwives. Presentation of different rules and regulations in a simple language to all emplgees, emphasizing on violation penalties is another suggestion.