Compliance of clinic professional nurses to the South African cervical cancer screening guidelines in Thulamela Municipality, South Africa

Abstract

Despite the availability of the South African cervical cancer screening guidelines at clinics, women are still seen in the out-patient department of selected rural district hospital in Thulamela Municipality, referred from Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities with no cervical cancer screening results. Thus, cervical cancer screenings are done at a hospital and results often came back positive for cervical cancer. Such practices pose a risk of delayed cervical cancer diagnoses and its discovery at an advanced stage, increasing cervical cancer mortality rates. The purpose of this study was to investigate the compliance of professional nurses at primary health care facilities to the South African cervical cancer screening guidelines in Thulamela Municipality. This study adopted a qualitative approach as it aimed to get a better understanding on compliance of professional nurses regarding South Africa’s cervical cancer screening guidelines. Nonprobability sampling was used to select primary health care facilities including interested participants who were judged to possess the information that was required to answer the research question of this study. The sample size of the study was determined by data saturation. Trustworthiness was ensured by four criteria of Guba and Linclon, namely credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. A digital recorder was used to log individual responses during interview sessions. Data from the digital recordings were transcribed verbatim. Results were analysed and interpreted thematically. This study established that clinic professional nurses are non –compliance to the South African cervical cancer screening guidelines; nurses face several challenges such as inadequate knowledge of the cervical cancer screening guidelines, shortage of resources and shortage of staff. Recommendations that emanated from the discussion of the findings and the conclusion of this study are likely to have implications and applications for supporting and advancing the cervical cancer screenings.