Back ground: Neonatal deaths account for 43% of under-five child deaths globally and 42% in Ethiopia. This can be prevented through quality essential newborn care practice of health professionals. However, limited evidence is available in the study area. Therefore, this study can provide a unique insight for health professionals, health programmers and further researchers.

Objective- To assess the status and associated factors of essential newborn care practice (ENBCP) provided by health professionals in rural Gedeo zone, South Ethiopia.

Method: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the ENBCP provided by health professionals in selected districts of Gedio zone. A total of 233 randomly selected health professionals were participated. The collected data were entered and analyzed by using SPSS statistical soft ware verstion.20.Variables with a P-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as having statistically significant association with ENBCP. The level of the association was measured with Odds Ratio (OR) with corresponding 95% CI.

Results: Among the total 233 health professionals, 24% had good ENBCP and majority, (76.0%) of health professionals missed one or more steps of essential ENBCP. Older age [OR 0.188(.031, 1.122)], female sex [OR 3.08(1.07, 8.81)], supportive supervision [OR 2.173(1.126, 4.196)], training status [OR 4.858(2.337, 10.098)], and knowing complication of the essential newborn [OR 1.981(1.006, 3.899)] were significantly associated with ENBCP.

Conclusion: The overall ENBCP among health professionals were no not good. There were also a number of health professionals with poor knowledge of ENBCP.  Age of 36-40 years, female sex, obtaining supportive supervision, training, and knowing complication of the newborn are significantly associated with NBCP.  This demonstrates a need to design training and supportive supervision programs for health professionals working in the rural health centers.

Key words: Essential Newborn care Practice, Neonate, Health Facility, Health Professionals, Gedeo, Ethiopia.