Awareness of Visual Inspection with Acetic-Acid (VIA) In Cervical Cancer Screening Among Nurses in Kaduna – State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study aims at assessing the awareness of visual inspection with acetic-acid in cervical cancer screening among health workers in secondary health care institutions of Kaduna state. An Ex-post facto design was used for the study. The study population comprises all nurses, midwives, and nurse-midwives working in all the secondary healthcare institutions of the state. The sample size used for the study was 300 using the Yamane sample size selection formula. The technique involved was stratified sampling method whereby the three existing senatorial zones served as strata. Each of the stratum was clustered according to the existing local government areas. A purposive sampling was further used to select nine local governments, three from each senatorial zone that have secondary health care institutions. A proportionate sampling was used to distribute questionnaire copies to the health workers. The instruments used for data collection was a questionnaire which was structured base on a modified likert scale to four point scale. Three hundred (300) questionnaire copies were administered out of which (297) were retrieved. The data collected was analyzed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and two sample t- test at 0.05 level of confidence to answer the hypothesis. Findings from the study shows that nurses in secondary healthcare institutions of Kaduna-state are not aware of using VIA in cervical cancer screening with an aggregate mean score of (2.2288). There is significant difference in the demographic variables of ( age-group, sex, professional category, and secondary health care institutions) in the awareness of VIA among nurses in Kaduna-state(p<0.05). It was therefore recommended that the state hospitals management board in collaboration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria should mount awareness campaign for nurses through seminars and workshops to make them fully aware of the VIA. Key words: Awareness, Visual inspection, Acetic-acid, Nurses.