Exploring health professionals roles in cervical cancer prevention at related gateway clinics in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Despite availability of cervical cancer screening in health institutions, cervical cancer remains to be one of the top five most important causes of morbidity and mortality in South Africa and the world at large. Nurses have an important role in cancer prevention and health education. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe Health professionals’ roles in cervical cancer prevention at selected gateway clinics in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province. The theoretical framework used in this study was ecological model of health promotion. A qualitative explorative and descriptive research design was used for the study. The population of the study was 30 nurses and a purposive convenience sample of 7 professional nurses from the 3 selected clinics were chose to make a total of 21 participants of the study. The data collection method was interviews and the Tesch’s open coding method was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that professional nurses had limited knowledge about cervical cancer but they knew the practical aspect of screening women for cervical cancer. Despite having limited knowledge, the nurse provides basic health education about cervical cancer screening. The nurses understood their roles which involves cervical cancer screening, follow up and referring patients to cervical cancer specialist for further diagnosis and treatment. To promote cervical cancer screening, the study recommends the following strategies; increase of health education, awareness campaigns, vaccination programs and increase of staff, equipment and facilities to screen cervical cancer in clinics by the Department of Health to curb the prevalence of cervical cancer amongst women.