The investigation of the knowledge levels of health workers and administrative personnel on neonatal screening programs in medical faculty of Manisa Celal Bayar University and Hafsa Sultan Hospital

Newborn screening tests are an important preventive public health program that provides early detection of these diseases by testing infants for treatable genetic, endocrinologic, metabolic, and hematological diseases. Parents, first and second degree close relatives as well as the health professionals also have responsibilities for the implementation of the accurate and reliable screening tests of newborns. Their identification of risk factors, symptoms and treatment processes that cause congenital diseases and sensory loss are of great importance in early identification in time and initiation of treatment process. This study was carried out to investigate the knowledge levels of health workers and administrative personnel on neonatal screening programs in Medical Faculty of Manisa Celal Bayar University and Hafsa Sultan Hospital. Our research is a descriptive type of work. The sample was not selected and a questionnaire was conducted to 365 people in a period of approximately 2 months. The questionnaire used in the research consists of 20 questions prepared by searching the literature to measure the knowledge levels about sociodemographic information and neonatal screening programs. 89.04% and 10.95% of the employees participating in our study are health personnel and administrative personnel, respectively. 69% of the participants were female and 31% were male. 0.5%, 7.7%, 7.7% and 84.2% of the participants were primary school graduates, secondary school graduates, associate degree graduates and undergraduate as well as postgraduate education level, respectively. The average age was 33,13 ± 8,59. 66% of the participants in the study had service years of 10 years or less while 44% had service years of 11 years and longer. The largest group of the participants in the study is research assistants (28.4%) and the second largest group is nurses (22.1%). The total of General Administrative services, technical services and auxiliary services is 10,94%. It is seen that 10.2% of the participants in the study have worked in the primary healthcare organization before. It was seen that 98.4% of the participants were aware of the newborn screening tests. Occupational groups forming a 1.6% slice that are not aware of newborn screening tests are seen to be other health personnel, general administrative services, and assisted services. Only 27.8% of administrative and technical personnel accepted the necessity of prevention of strict swathing to reduce the incidence of diseases in the newborn screening program and 52.8% accepted the necessity of premarital education. When we evaluate the results of our research; it is pleasing that both physicians and assistant health personnel have high knowledge about subjects and applications related to newborn screening tests. However, the fact that some of the non-health staff members have inaccurate knowledge and thoughts about some applications related to newborn screening tests reveals the importance of non-formal education in this regard. Key Words: Neonatal screening tests, newborn screening tests, the knowledge levels of health workers and administrative personnel on health services