Pregnant Women’s Perceptions and Factors Influencing the Acceptance of Medical Students’ Participation in Pelvic Examination at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital

Background: Pelvic examination of patients is an important skill for medical students involving physical assessment of the patients’ genitalia. This is an invasive routine procedure usually performed intrapartum. However, most times women experience discomfort, pain, fear, embarrassment, and dissatisfaction with care when examined by qualified health workers and or student health workers. This may affect their compliance with the necessary procedure, thereby interfering with good maternal-child health outcomes and student health workers' acquisition of examination skills. Objective: To determine pregnant women’s perception, acceptance and factors associated with acceptance of vaginal examination by students at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design employing quantitative techniques was utilized to enroll 345 eligible pregnant women consecutively into the study. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify statistically significant variables. Results: More than three quarters of the women; 80% (276/345) reported that they would accept students to perform vaginal examinations on them. More than two-thirds 69% (238/345) had a positive perception of being examined by student health workers. Women older than 29 years (cOR: 0.69, CI: 0.41-1.18, P=0.176), those who had ever given birth (cOR:1.47; CI: 0.86-2.53, P=0.159), those who had attained secondary (cOR:0.15; CI: 0.03-0.68, P=0.014) or tertiary (cOR:0.06; CI: 0.01-0.29, P=0.000) education were found to be willing to accept vaginal examination by student health workers. Conclusion: Most pregnant women had a positive perception and would accept students to perform vaginal examinations on them. Older age, parity, higher education level and formal employment were found to be enhancers of acceptance of vaginal examination by students.