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Provider‐Identified Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening and Perceptions Toward Self‐Collection of Human Papillomavirus in Southwest Virginia
Author(s) -
Garcia Christine,
Lothamer Heather,
Mitchell Emma McKim
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
public health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1525-1446
pISSN - 0737-1209
DOI - 10.1111/phn.12285
Subject(s) - outreach , medicine , cervical cancer , family medicine , nursing , cervical cancer screening , public health , community health , cancer screening , health care , attrition , gerontology , cancer , dentistry , political science , law , economics , economic growth
Objective To explore health care workers identified barriers to cervical cancer screening in rural Southwest Virginia. Design and Sample A descriptive study utilizing telephone‐based structured interviews and conventional content analysis. All free and federally funded health clinics within a 75 mile radius of Virginia's health Districts 1, 2, and 3 were contacted for participation in the study. Measures Organizational information such as composition of clinical staff, services provided, cost of services, recorded compliance with current guidelines, and assessed individual barriers to accessing screening within the community. Results With a 27% response rate, all but one clinic offered cervical cancer screening. The most common barriers to cervical cancer screening identified were lack of education and cost. The most important efforts to detect unscreened women and increase screening would involve clinic‐based tracking, education and advertisements. Seventy percent of respondents felt that self‐collection of HPV would be at least somewhat acceptable in their communities. Conclusions Public health nursing implications for the barriers of lack of education and high cost were found in this study. In Southwest Virginia, self‐collection of HPV was perceived as acceptable by health care workers in the community, and might represent an avenue for increased outreach and education.