A Study of Papanicolaou Smear Practices among Female Nurses in a Tertiary Hospital in Gombe, Northeast, Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: Both the incidence and burden of cervical cancer have been drastically reduced in the developed world, due to regular practice of cervical cancer screening with pap smear. Unfortunately, the disease is still the most common gynecological cancer in Africa and the second leading cause of cancer mortality in Nigeria after Breast cancer. Knowledge of cervical cancer screening become more important in Nigeria (the highest prevalence of schistosomiasis endemic country) since cervical cancer is linked to female genital schistosomiasis. The study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices of Papanicolaou smear among female nurses in a tertiary hospital in Gombe.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in which information was obtained from randomly selected 91 female nurses in Federal Teaching Hospital who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, and the data were analyzed at univariate and bivariate levels using SPSS version 23 with a P-value of less than 0.05.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 39±7.3 years with the age group 25 – 34 years constituting 45.9% of the participants. Greater proportions (64.4%) of the respondents were married. About 54.9% of the female nurses knew that Pap smear is a screening test for cervical cancer. Though the respondents had a good attitude (100%) toward a Pap smear as a cervical cancer screening test, only 38.5% have had a Pap smear done. Being married was found to have had statistically significant association with knowledge of the Pap smear as a screening test for cervical cancer.

Conclusion:  The study showed that the female nurses who should be advocates of cervical cancer screening tests to society have poor practices toward the test despite their fair knowledge and good attitude toward the screening test.