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Changes in Public Health Nurses’ Knowledge and Perception of Counseling and Clinical Skills for Breast and Cervical Cancer Control

This study discusses the findings from two surveys of 459 nurses working in public health about their knowledge and perception of counseling and clinical skills related to breast and cervical cancer control. The first survey was conducted in 1993 before professional education efforts with the Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP) began in North Carolina. The second survey was carried out in 1996. The results show a significant increase from 1993 to 1996 in recognition of increasing age, nulliparity, late childbearing, and family history as risk factors for breast cancer, and for smoking and early age at first sexual intercourse as risk factors for cervical cancer. Nurses’ skills were more likely to be rated as excellent or very good in 1996 as compared with ratings in 1993 for educating women about mammography, performing a clinical breast examination, teaching breast self-examination by demonstration, performing a Papanicolaou (Pap) smear and bimanual examination, and counseling women about abnormal Pap tests. Nurses who took a BCCCP-sponsored adult physical assessment course were more likely to know correct risk factors for breast and cervical cancer, and to show improvement in teaching breast self-examination, performing a Pap smear, and counseling women about abnormal Pap tests.