Breast, Cervix and Colorectal Cancer Knowledge among Nurses in Turkey

Abstract

Background: Cancer is one of the most common causes of death in Turkey. Nurses are essential providers of preventive care for patients, especially breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening as part of routine preventive practice. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge of these cancers among nurses in Karabuk State Hospital. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was performed from April 1 to July 30, 2013. The study sample consisted of 226 nurses working in Karabuk State Hospital. Results: Mean age of the nurses was 32.07±8.39. 62.4% of nurses practiced breast self examination when they remembered it, while 39.8% of them did not take a Pap smear test since they did not think it was necessary. 64.2% of nurses would like to receive information about cancer and screening tests. Majority of them had given true answers to questions on breast, cervical and colorectal cancer. There were significant relationships between cancer knowledge scores and marital status, working experience, and level of education. Conclusions: Nurses possess adequate knowledge about breast cancer but they need more information on cancer risk estimation. Awareness may be raised in nurses by establishing continuing education programs regarding the risk factors, symptoms, protection methods, early diagnosis, and scanning of breast, cervix and colon cancers.

Knowledge of Breast Cancer and Breast Self-Examination Practice among Iranian Women in Hamedan, Iran

“…These findings are support by Akhtari-Zavare et al (2013) that reported 97% of the participants heard about BSE, only 36.7% stated that they performed BSE and among those who practice BSE, most of them practice BSE occasionally (50, 57.5%). Similarly, in a study from Turkey reported less than half of the respondents participated BSE and a few are doing BSE regularly (Andsoy and Gul, 2014). All these studies showed that Asian women have low to moderate knowledge with poor to moderate BSE practice.…”

Breast Cancer Awareness among Turkish Nursing Students

“…In this study, all female students showed have knowledge about breast cancer and their awareness of breast cancer has a good level. The earlier studies on women in Turkey breast cancer of women in early diagnosis information and has been found to be insufficient (Cadir et al, 2004;Findik and Turan, 2004;Andsoy and Gul, 2014;. In the studies conducted by Sambanje and Mafuvadze (2012) and Al-Sharbatti et al (2013) unlike the medical and non-medical university students studying in sections in all of the knowledge and awareness of breast cancer has been reported to be low.…”

“…It has been reported that the breast cancer accounts for 30-40 % of all the cancer incidences in women all over the world (Andsoy and Gul, 2014;Che et al, 2014;Rizalar et al, 2014). In Turkey, breast cancer incidence rates are rapidly increasing (Andsoy and Gul, 2014).…”

“…These programs increasing individuals' cancer awareness, understanding of the importance of early diagnosis and appropriate treatment, the survival of the individual is given the opportunity to be highly probable. As a result of this, it is indicated that the damage caused by disease can be minimize significantly and increase the quality of life in the community (Demirhan Uzun et al, 2004;Andsoy and Gul, 2014;Bien et al, 2014).…”

Teaching Breast Cancer Screening via Text Messages as Part of Continuing Education for Working Nurses: A Case-control Study

“…Sreedharan et al investigated knowledge and practice of breast self exam in 154 nurses working in the United Arab Emirates hospitals via a self-administered structured questionnaire and made out satisfactory results (Sreedharan et al, 2010). Yousuf et al examined general knowledge about breast cancer and its risk factors in 210 Saudi nurses practicing in primary health care centers (Yousuf et al, 2012) while Fotedar et al investigated the knowledge of nurses about breast cancer risk factors and methods of early detection in 457 nurses in a medical college in India (Fotedar et al, 2013); Ozkan et al assessed the level of knowledge as well as beliefs about breast self examination in 113 nursing and midwifery students (Ozkan et al, 2010) and Andsoy et al carried out a study to investigate knowledge of breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening among 226 working nurses (Andsoy and Gul, 2014). All these researchers concluded that adequate awareness about the subject may be raised in nurses by establishing continuing education programs.…”