Bawa-Muhammad Taiwo Hassanat.
Mabushi Primary Health Centre, Abuja.
Title: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pap smear Among Female Nurses in Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto
Biography
Biography: Bawa-Muhammad Taiwo Hassanat.
Abstract
Cancer of cervix is the commonest malignancy of the female genital tract in developing countries. Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common (12%) cancer in women. This study was aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of Pap smear among female nurses in a tertiary institution. A descriptive study was carried out using 217 questionnaires to screen female nurses out of which 200 were retrieved. Respondents were selected using convenience sampling technique and data analyzed with percentage and distribution tables. The study revealed that nurses have adequate information about cervical cancer, available screening tests, purpose of screening, major risk factors and symptoms of cancer cervix. 85% believed that cancer of cervix is preventable and curable if detected early. 66% never advised clients to have it, 12% ever had a pap smear and common reasons offered for not screened were they have no symptom of cervical cancer. 48.2% who did the smear did it voluntary, 11.5% had lost relations to cancer of cervix and 91% had knowledge about HPV vaccine. 2.5% received the vaccine and all willing to do a pap smear and take the vaccine if available. Knowledge of Pap smear for cervical cancer screening is high, practice is low. Reason for low practice of cervical cancer screening among Nurses need to be investigated. Training and retraining is recommended to update nurses about cervical cancer so that they can enlighten community about need for regular cervical cancer screening.