Understanding the Barriers and Enablers to Continue Quality Care Services for Management of Possible Severe Bacterial Infection by Private Sector Providers of Kavre, Nepal: A Qualitative study

Nepal’s Every Newborn Action Plan 2015 aspires to reduce newborn deaths from 21 per 1000 in 2016 to 18.9 per 1,000 live births by 2020 and to 10.9 by 2035. Improving access for early diagnosis and prompt treatment of Possible Severe Bacterial Infection (PSBI) is one of the specific strategies to reduce newborn mortality. National surveys report that mostly preferred choice of health facilities are private sectors particularly medicine shops which could be due to its accessibility and availability to the community. Based on available evidences, a pilot intervention aiming to improve the practice of private providers through orientation on PSBI (national protocol of diagnosis, treatment, and referral) were conducted in Kavrepalanchok district from June 2018 through February 2019 by MCSP in partnership with Nepal Contraceptive Retail Sales (CRS) Company. In this context Saving Newborn Lives (SNL) planned to conduct a qualitative study to explore experiences and perceptions of service providers while managing sick young infants with PSBI cases and service users perspective while receiving care for their child PSBI in order to analyze the barriers and enablers of the expected outcome of the pilot intervention