The knowledge, attitude and practices of nurses regarding the provision of services on Cervical cancer at healthcare facilities in Windhoek district, Namibia
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Date
2019
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices of nurses regarding the provision of services on cervical cancer at the health facilities in Windhoek district, Namibia. To achieve this aim, four objectives were set: (a) to assess the knowledge of cervical cancer and cervical cancer services among nurses (b) to determine the nurses' attitudes towards the provision of cervical cancer services (c) to assess the practices of nurses towards the provision of services on cervical cancer; and (d) to analyse the association between the key variables with regards to cervical cancer and the provision of its services. A quantitative, descriptive and analytical study, using a self-administered structured questionnaire was completed in 2019.
Data on socio-demographic, knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding cervical cancer service provision was collected from nurses that are working at the randomly selected healthcare facilities such as Windhoek Central hospitals, Intermediate Katutura Hospital, Hakahana clinic, Wanaheda clinic, Okuryangava clinic and Katutura Health Centre. A total of eighty (80) participants was sampled with the means of stratified random sampling, proportionate to the size of the population at a certain health facility. With SPSS version 25, the researcher started with double data entry, descriptive statistics, recoding, redefining, scoring and finally categorising the findings. At a later stage Cross tabulation was done together with Pearson‘s Chi-squared test to determine the significance of the association between the variables, p-value < 0.05.
The study comprised mostly females (78.4%) with 21.6% of males. Of the participants, 74.3% were reported to have a good level of knowledge of cervical cancer and the provision of its services. None of the nurses was found to have poor level of knowledge. All nurses in this study showed a positive attitude towards cervical cancer and its services. Many nurses 71.2% indicated to have a good practice compared to few 28.8% of the nurses with poor practice of cervical cancer service provision. The findings further reported gender to be a significant predictor of practice with the p-value=0.000. Moreover, the study revealed that the level of knowledge was not significantly associated with practice p-value= 0.366. The researcher proposed for an ongoing in-service training to improve nurses’ knowledge and to keep them updated with information on cervical cancer services. Additionally, the researcher recommended a different study to on the challenges faced by healthcare workers in providing services regarding cervical cancer and the women uptake of these services.
Description
A research thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Nursing Science
Keywords
Cervical cancer, Healthcare facilities