Nurses practices and knowledge of breast self-examination in selected hospitals, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Cancer incidence is now ranked as the leading cause of death in some economic developed countries of the world followed by heart disease and stroke. Nurses at present are in the frontline of care as most patients seek consultation with them. Short comings in early breast cancer detection may arise from poor practice of breast self-examinations among nurses in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The aim of this study is to assess nurses' practice and knowledge of breast self-examination. A descriptive hospital based survey design was conducted to assess a sample of 92 nurses respondents out of a pool of 98 nurses required based on power calculation from the selected hospitals whose age ranges from 20-60 years. Data was collected using a self-report questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results reveal that 38% of the nurses had good knowledge, 48.9% very good knowledge and 13% poor knowledge of signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Similarly, scores on risk factors shows that 43.5% had good knowledge, 39.1% very good knowledge and 17.4% poor knowledge. Distribution of knowledge of breast cancer scores with some variables shows age at first delivery to be significant (? 2 = 26.6, p = 0.023) determinant of knowledge. About 95.7% of the nurses knew about breast self-examination with 23.9% of them practicing breast self-examination once in a month. The 87.0% nurses knew about mammography with 92.4% of them never applied or use mammography. Further, 80.4% of the nurses knew about clinical breast examination with 81.5% of them never applied it or practice it, only 7.6% applied it within a month/year. These results suggest that nurses had very good knowledge of what BSE, CBE and mammography is but minority practiced or applied these methods. Age of first delivery also determined level of knowledge and behavior of the respondent nurses. Therefore, compliance to knowledge by practice is recommended to all nurses. © Medwell Journals, 2012.