1.Awareness of cervical cancer screening among nursing staff in a tertiary institution of rural India.
Ekta SINGH ; Shikha SETH ; Vidya RANI ; Dhiraj Kumar SRIVASTAVA
Journal of Gynecologic Oncology 2012;23(3):141-146
OBJECTIVE: To determine the baseline information about the knowledge of cervical cancer and explore attitude and practice of Pap smear screening among staff nurses. METHODS: A pretested structured self administered questionnaire based survey was done on 205 staff nurses working in Rural Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Saifai, Etawah, containing mostly recognition and some recall type questions about demographics, knowledge about cervical cancer, its risk factors, screening techniques, attitudes towards cervical cancer screening and its practices. RESULTS: In this study, 74% knew that Pap smear is used for detection of cervical cancer, but only 59% knew that it can detect both cancerous as well as precancerous lesions of the cervix. Only 18% of the respondents knew about human papillomavirus vaccine. A 47% of respondents had never taken a Pap smear; 63% never referred patients for the screening. Most nurses (79%) thought that a speculum examination and Pap smear are procedures to be performed by the doctors. Among all the respondents, only 11% had ever undergone a Pap smear on themselves. CONCLUSION: Despite knowledge of the gravity of cervical cancer and prevention by screening, attitudes and practices towards screening were negative.
Cervix Uteri
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Surveys and Questionnaires
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Demography
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Female
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Gravitation
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Humans
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India
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Mass Screening
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Nursing Staff
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Risk Factors
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Surgical Instruments
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Uterine Cervical Neoplasms